Saving the Hero
by VVoltronSV
Summary: Three years after Persona 3, Mitsuru meets an ancient being and sets down a path to save one she thought was forever lost. Will contain religious themes.
1. Chapter 1

Mitsuru Kirijo sat at her desk looking over the quarterly financial reports with increased vexation. After she took over as the head of the Kirijo Group, Japanese politics and social moors about women business leaders had put the company into a decline. She had the company go international and moved the company headquarters to America to try and curb some of the hostility of a woman CEO, as she had heard it was not as severe there. Despite having halted the companies decline, certain American prejudices, such as her youth being an issue, had kept the company from growing back to its former glory. Of course, the current stock reports indicate some of that may be due to a floundering world economy.

As Mitsuru shuffled some papers around, the sound of keys hitting the carpet next to her feet pulled her attention away from the mountains of paperwork she had in front of her. She looked at the ground and noticed his key had fell to the ground. She could have swore it was in a drawer, but seeing it brought back a swell of bittersweet memories. The time he had showed up at the dorm during the Dark Hour. When she first noticed him as an intellectual equal. The time he defended her from her former fiance. The night they spent together when she had given him that key. Even the most heartbreaking one of them all: the time she held his head in his lap as he just drifted away that one last time.

Mitsuru did her best to wipe the tears from her eyes, but it was too late. Her make up was already in ruins and the tears would not stop flowing. Today was the third anniversary of his death, and while she had planned to observe the day in her own way later, she realized that her plans would not be allowed to wait. She picked up the keys, and had her secretary clear her schedule. She pulled her riding gear from the coat rack behind the door, locked the door and got changed. Fifteen minutes later she was heading out of the parking garage on her special bike and riding through the Cincinnati Streets.

There was nothing here in the entire country that meant anything special to him, but it was where she was now and not much she could do to change it. Still the very act of riding the motorcycle brought back some of the fonder memories and helped her honor his memory. She knew about the other women he had relations with back in high school, and she knew that they all happened in a very compressed period of time. Hell, she knew that he was dating Takeba the same time they were dating, but it really didn't bother her it like she knew it should. As a member of SEES and student council president she had occasion to talk to the other girls, and only Takeba and Aigis, in her own weird way, were really the only competition Mitsuru had. More importantly she knew he could never say no to a girl, so many of those relationships probably progressed the way they did because the girls wanted them to more than him being a womanizer.

As she ducked and weaved pas an elderly couple in a dark blue van, she smiled. She was certain that he would have chosen her in the end. It wasn't just the fact that he had told her about his need to form Social Links to develop his power, the dread he felt about having to face Nyx, or even the fact that they had talked about marriage after she called off her arranged marriage, or any of the other things she had figured out that she was the only one he told. No, it was the simple fact that at the end, he looked into her eyes, and as the light faded from his calm, blue eyes, and said, "I love you," as his final words.

Mitsuru pulled up to a Japanese Restaurant she had found on 7th street. It didn't serve the high-end meals her personal cook made for her every night, but it was a taste of home and it had a similar atmosphere as the place where they had had their first date. Mitsuru walked into the restaurant and was seated next to a tall blonde woman at the bar. Mitsuru ordered the Shrimp Tempura and quietly mused in her own thoughts while sipping on a soda and waiting for her food. It was after she pulled a picture of him up on her phone and looked at it for a moment that the blonde spoke.

"He looks a little young for you. Was he your brother?"

Mitsuru had been caught off guard by the sudden question, but regain composure almost immediately, "No, he was my first love. He died three years ago."

The blonde looked a bit confused by the comment, "I do not believe that died is the word I would have used. But where are my manners? I am Louisa Ferre."

Mitsuru gave a quick bow, though it looked more like a nod, to Louisa before looking at her more quizzically. "I am Mitsuru Kirijo. And if you don't mind my asking, why wouldn't you have used the word die?"

Louisa gave a gentle smile, "Not everyone has forgotten about how SEES, and most specifically that young man, averted the Fall. His very soul is the seal that keeps Nyx from hearing Erebus's call."

Mitsuru glared at Louisa, "That's not possible, there shouldn't be a human alive who wasn't in SEES that remembers that. How do you know all of this?"

Louisa continued to look amused, "Says the woman who could call the ghost of an ancient queen to battle, and fought many of her battles in the 25th hour of the day. However, you have answered your own question as to how I would know."

Mitsuru immediately regretted not bringing the Lucifer Blade, or at least an evoker, not that she genuinely thought either would actually work right now, "You're a shadow?"

Louisa giggled, "No, there are a great many other beings of supernatural inclinations besides shadows. In fact, the first couple groups of persona users fought demons, not shadows. Or are you surprised to find you are not the first, even in your own family, to wield a persona?"

Mitsuru barely noticed her order being placed in front of her as she continued to glare at Louisa, "If you are not human or a shadow, then what is it you want? I sincerely hope for your sake it is not simply to cause me pain, for I will pay it back upon you a hundred fold."

Louisa had to suppress a laugh, "I would not try to use your evoker now. To call upon your persona after all this time to battle me would only lead to your own death. No, I am here because things in this world are not as they should be, and you possess the strongest bond to the key to the problem's solution.

"I have come to offer you a chance to be with the one you love again. But I warn you the path to do so is long, perilous, and will inflict more pain upon you than the deaths of the most important men in your life has ever caused you. It is you who must adjust reality."

Mitsuru stabbed at her food, when she realized people were watching her not eat. "And how am I to accomplish this without my persona?"

"You're persona will return to you on its own, and you will know it when that time comes. But in the meantime I have a program I wish to install on that prototype smart phone you carry. It will be the means by which you gain the power you need to overcome this time." Louisa reached out and touched Mitsuru's phone and it displayed some unusual computer text for a time. "There it is done. Now if you'll excuse me, I have other business I must attend to. One last thing before I go, beware of the Hanged Man."

Mitsuru finished her meal after Louisa left, but it left a knot in her stomach as she tried to swallow. She went back to her home and pondered what Louisa had meant by a chance to be with her loved one again. It kept pulling at her mind even as she looked about the spacious penthouse looking over the chalice that was once the hilt of the Lucifer Blade, his Lucifer Blade, sitting in front of stand carrying several of the swords Mitsuru herself wielded in her shadow fighting days. She pulled up the phone and looked at the program Louisa had put on it with but a touch. A blood red button labeled "Demon Summoning Program" in Kanji was now on the phone. Still not quite believing that earlier persona users had fought demons instead of shadows, Mitsuru touched the program to determine what it did and suddenly a bright flash blinded her.

When her vision restored itself, a Pixie, on of his lower-powered personas, was floating before her. The pixie looked at Mitsuru and huffed, "Well, looks like your the one trying to form a contract. Well, it won't happen. I'm gonna kill you and earn my freedom."

Mitsuru wasn't quite sure what happened after that but she could have swore she had been hit by a Garu spell. Mitsuru scrambled to find cover, and a weapon. The Pixie would flit about and slap or kick Mitsuru and occasionally toss out a Zio or Garu spell. Mitsuru was grateful this little demon didn't know Agi spells because if she still possessed her persona's weakness to fire, she would have been dead if it ever used them. Not that it mattered much, this pixie was still tearing Mitsuru apart. Mitsuru dived behind a couch near her weapon stand as another Garu blast just missed her head. The blast had knocked the chalice of the Lucifer Blade right in easy reach.

Not knowing for certain that the blade would even appear, as it had not down countless times before, Mitsuru grabbed the chalice and charged the pixie. As Mitsuru swung, the light of the blade unsheathed itself and struck the pixie with all the might it had when it slew countless shadows. The pixie fell to the ground and began to fade. The pixie looked up and smiled, "Well, master if you have such a weapon already, then our contract promises to be very fun indeed. Call me next time you get into trouble, 'kay?"

Mitsuru brushed her red, tangled, blood-matted hair out of her face. She would have words for Louisa next time she saw her. But right now she needed medical attention.

To be continued.


	2. Chapter 2

Mitsuru had been released from the hospital as the police investigated her accident. She hadn't developed the contacts her father had with local law enforcement when he was alive, but because the culprit was a demon, she rather doubted they would find anything that made sense. She went back to the office, but for some reason the building was empty, not even the lights worked. She pulled her phone out and tried calling building management, but she could not get a signal. A gurgling mass passed by near the stairs up. Mitsuru switched the phone from calling mode and started the devil summoning program. Pixie popped out and started looking around.

Pixie put her hands on her hips, and looked around, "Gee boss, skipped the beginner dungeons and went straight for the high level stuff? I don't sense any of the ones I can actually deal with on my own. Heck, that thing that just passed by was freaking Mara."

Mitsuru pulled the Lucifer Blade from her purse, "This isn't a dungeon, it's my office building. Besides I've fought things of significant power before, like Nyx's Avatar. I doubt that low-level demons would be much of a threat."

Pixie looked miffed, "Hey, I was kicking your ass for a bit before you got that sword."

"I was unaware and completely unequipped. This time will be different."

"Just don't go using that Persona yet," Pixie mused. "It could kill as you are now."

Mitsuru frowned, "I still don't get why Artemisia would hurt me now when I've been able to use her in the past."

Pixie scratched her head, "I don't fully get it either, but something about you changed since then. Though, I should tell you about negotiations."

Mitsuru closed her eyes for a moment, "I run a multimillion dollar company, I doubt you would be able to tell me much about negotiating with people."

Pixie smiled, "What about negotiating with demons? Your phone can hold up to ten you know."

Mitsuru moved forward cutting down a Manticore down with two strokes, "If I find any willing to talk to me, I'll make sure to look for you for cues."

Pixie shrugged, "Fine. I'll stay toward the back and just cast dia spells then, as you don't appear to need my help."

Mitsuru made her way up the stairs, as the elevator seemed to be broken. It occurred to Mitsuru as she cut down many of the demons she was fighting that so many of them appeared to be his personas. She tried talking to some of them but most seemed to be frenzied and either unable or unwilling to talk. She also noted that Pixie was getting a lot stronger. After climbing up to the second floor, she began to notice blood splatter on the walls. It was likely that there were employees here when the demons attacked.

Pixie mused, "As much as I would like to say that there may be survivors, demons tend to be hunters without parallel."

Mitsuru's face tightened in anger, "Where did these things come from? None of my departments were working on research into anything supernatural."

Pixie shrugged, "I can't say for certain. I think the last time demons roamed in places like this another supernatural being summoned them to this world en mass."

Mitsuru looked over to Pixie, "Hanged Man?"

"No, that is usually a reference to Odin. No, last time it was something called Joker."

Mitsuru decided not to dwell on it and pressed forward. She came across an employee lounge, her stomach turned as she saw the half-eaten human arm dangling from a hanging light. There seemed to be no demons in the lounge, but there were lots of bodies. She turned to leave the lounge and saw, right across the hall, an electrical room. Peering inside she saw an odd creature, it wasn't like any of the demons or personas she had seen before. The creature was comprised of pure electricity in a vaguely human shape. The creature had exposed some of the wires and fed on the electricity being channeled through them.

Mitsuru charged at the beast and began her fencing strikes on the beast. Every last one connected, but none of them seemed to effect the creature. Mitsuru's eyes narrowed as the creature turned and launched an electrical counterattack. Trying to put some distance between her and the creature after Pixie distracted the beast, Mitsuru rolled out of the electrical room and started looking for a fire extinguisher, or anything that might help her combat this thing as the Lucifer Blade was clearly useless on it. Pixie was trying to fight it, but it was likely the little demon would not survive a direct hit from the creature.

Mitsuru eventually found a fire hose and broke it and ran toward the creature. The fact that the fire alarms were not going off after breaking the glass did not go unnoticed, and only vexed Mitsuru more. She came back into the door way and hosed the water on the beast. The beast didn't even turn it's attention away from pixie. However, the beast used the water to conduct another electrical discharge towards Mitsuru. She scrambled to turn it off, but was too late. The electricity leaped from the water and struck Mitsuru. Her muscles began to seize and her mind raced trying to find a way to end this fight. If only she could summon Artemisia.

"Persona!"

The electric beast suddenly had a new enemy to contend with that got it's full attention, a Valkyrie persona slammed the beast with a bufula spell. As the persona faded, a familiar form entered Mitsuru's still hazy view. The form proceeded to engage the beast with powers that were painfully familiar to Mitsuru, but she knew it was not him. The form kept changing personas and eventually felled the beast with bufu skills. Which irked Mitsuru to no end, as the fight should have been easy for her if she could have used Artemisia.

"Thanks, Aigis," Mitsuru said as she picked herself off the floor.

"You're welcome, Mitsuru-san." Aigis was staring at Pixie in wonder, and Pixie returned the sentiment.

"You can just call me Mitsuru here. America doesn't use honorifics and it would be out of place to use them. Besides, I'd like to think we had gotten to be good enough friends to stop using them even if this were Japan."

"Understood. I have already cleared many of the civilians out of the building, at least those who survived."

Pixie couldn't take it anymore and blurted, "Alright, we have two non-demons show up in a span of less than 10 minutes, one's dead and this one can use personas. One of which looked like me. Somebody care to explain this to me?"

"Pixie this is Aigis, a friend I called to help me out after my first encounter with you. She's a gynoid built by my company to fight shadows. That's why she can use personas." Mitsuru explained as she looked for the phone she seemed to have dropped.

Pixie quickly donned a mischievous grin, "As long as you don't make a dutch wife in my likeness, I won't have a problem working with your gynoid. It still doesn't answer anything about electro-man over here."

Aigis looked very indignant, "I am not a dutch wife. Mitsuru, are you looking for this phone? I am sorry, but it seems to have become damaged in the fight."

Pixie went from mischievous to panicked in a hurry, "What! Let me see that." Pixie looked over the phone and then held her head in despair, "I can't go back to the demon world and Mitsuru cannot summon more demons. This is bad, the demon summoning program is locked."

Mitsuru patted Pixie's back with a finger, "It'll be fine I'm sure we'll find a way to unfreeze the program."

Pixie sobbed gently, "I hope so. But with it frozen, if I bite it, that's it for me. I don't just go into a state of limbo in the phone until you can revive me."

Aigis went into the electrical room and flipped a few switches. "I believe I have restored power to the building. We should head up to Mitsuru's office as that is where these demons first appeared. There was some cackling behind the door."

Mitsuru nodded and led the way to the elevators and proceeded to the 14th floor. There were a few more demons to fight and a few dead bodies along the way but eventually they reached her office. They carefully opened the door and looked inside. Standing on Mitsuru's desk was a 7 foot tall man with a heavy, but muscular build. The man was completely bald and his eyes were completely black. He wore blood-red, sleeveless garments that were patterned after that of a medieval king, a crown of interwoven gold vines adorned his head. All across his arms, especially at the wrists, were scars and what seemed to be permanent rope burn could be seen clearly on his neck. A palpable feeling of power and intimidation flowed from him and filled the room.

"Woe! Woe! Woe! To those who defy my rule. The sleeping empress and the guardian shield arrive too late. I have marked this place as my own and all I have brought within bow to my rule. Those who have escaped have only delayed their fate. Come! Kneel before me and I shall grant you mercy. Continue your defiance and I shall mete out your terrible reward." The man spoke with a voice that could drown out thunder.

"The Hanged Man?" Mitsuru pondered aloud.

"Nay, that is not the name by which I am most known, but it is a suitable monicker for now."

Aigis dropped into her firing stance, "Engaging target."

Despite the initial surprise attack from Aigis, the battle did not go so well. Aigis seemed unwilling, or more likely unable, to use any high level personas and Pixie's best Zionga spell didn't even phase him. Mitsuru went in close and loosed her fencing skills upon the Hanged Man with the Lucifer Blade, but while it cut him, it seemed to bring forth only the Hanged Man's rage. He tossed out a few dyne-level spell and finished with a Megido spell. Mitsuru looked over at Pixie and saw she was unconscious, but still breathing, Aigis was down, but in unknown condition. Mitsuru looked in the general direction of the Hanged Man and saw a blue butterfly floating just within reach, as the Hanged Man drew close. Mitsuru reached out her hand to find something to grab onto, to stand, to fight. However, she only managed to touch the butterfly before her consciousness faded to black.

To be continued.


	3. Chapter 3

Mitsuru's consciousness seemed to be slipping away. The air and environment around her felt surreal. There was no sense of up or down and the colors of the indescribable things around her changed the more she looked at them. In the middle of this chaos swirling around her, a single pagoda came into view and it drew her in. Within the pagoda Mitsuru regained her sense of order and everything seemed upright again. The pillars and ceiling were made of gold, and the floor had checker-pattern of black and white marble. There was a man standing in the certain of this place. He wore simple, white clothing with his jet-black hair tied back in a knot. His face was completely covered with a white mask with a single purple butterfly on the upper right portion of the mask.

The masked figure spoke with a calm, rather soothing voice, "Greetings, my friend. I am Philemon, and I dwell in this place between consciousness and unconsciousness. You are welcome here, but first a simple test. Do you remember your name?"

"I am," Mitsuru tried to fight the fog in her head, "Mitsuru Kirijo."

"Very good, despite the opponent in front of you, he has not yet drained your will. Most admirable. Normally, it would be now that I would bestow upon you the gift of Persona, but it appears that you already possess the ability to call upon one of your inner selves."

Mitsuru tried to wrap her mind around what Philemon said, "I can use more than one persona?"

"That is the gift I provide to those of sufficient will. However, as you are gifted by the Empress and not the Fool, you cannot wield all personas with ease, nor can you simply generate your own beyond Artemisia."

"But I've been told-"

"That attempts to use Artemisia would kill you? That is only a half-truth. The inner gods and demons that rest within your soul are undergoing a change to match your own growth. To try and awaken them now will stunt your, as well as their, growth. That path may kill you."

"If I don't use them now, the Hanged Man will kill me."

"That is one possible path. There are dozens of others. Your path up Tarturus, and down the Abyss of Time have trained not just your persona, but you as well. The great tragedies of your life did not break you, but have made you stronger. It is for you to decide what path you shall take, but know that you have all you need to survive this encounter, and that your weapons are more numerous than you might imagine. Open your eyes and choose wisely, and know that whatever destination your reach it will have been a path of your own choosing."

Mitsuru's vision began to refocus. The large figure of the Hanged Man stood over her, a sickle was overhead, ready to strike down upon her. She rolled out of the way as the sickle came down. Mitsuru grabbed Lucifer's Blade, and sprung forward, sinking the blade deep into the Hanged Man's side. The wound drew no blood, and the Hanged Man roared, but it seemed more rage at being struck than pain. Mitsuru was barely able to withdraw the blade from her opponent's side in order to parry the incoming blow from the sickle.

"Blasphemous bitch! You persist in your arrogant attempts to wound me avail not. Accept your destiny to die at my hand, lest your woe be greatly multiplied," Hanged Man bellowed as he grazed Mitsuru's left arm with his sickle.

Mitsuru did not respond but instead focused on the Hanged Man himself. There had to be a way to survive this. Running away was unlikely to work. Besides in her present state, she'd likely have to leave Pixie and Aigis behind, an unacceptable outcome. Hanged Man seemed to love talking, but the idea of surrendering to him was unsettling to say the least, and it seemed to be something done of a weak will. Her will would be unfailing, and she would find a way to strike a blow against the monster that had threatened her company and harmed her friends. It was then everything clicked.

Mitsuru dropped Lucifer's Blade and went diving for the rapier stand she had kept in her office. None of the blades on the stand were well kept and likely to be dull, but Hanged Man was a demon, and what harms it may be different than what would harm a human. Wielding the rapier, Mitsuru focused her energies on striking with the rapier's blade. Hanged Man only laughed at Mitsuru.

"You'll fall by my hand!"

Mitsuru rushed toward the towering demon. Hanged Man unleashed a Bufudyne on her while she tried to cover what little ground there was between them. The cold of the spell bit into Mitsuru's skin, but did nothing to stop her. Mitsuru took the last step and plunged the blade into where she hoped the demon's heart was. The rapier bit deeply into the demon's skin, and this time, Hanged Man bled.

"What fowl trickery is this? You wound me?" Hanged man was beyond shock, and was simply dumbfounded. But before Mitsuru could strike again, the demon vanished.

Mitsuru checked up on Aigis and Pixie after the fight. Aigis rebooted with little problem, but Pixie would take time to recover. They place Pixie in a safe place and walked the halls of the building. After a few minutes of searching for any left over demons, and not finding anything, Aigis finished listening and processing Mitsuru's story.

Aigis looked at the rapier Mitsuru now carried, "Why would an ordinary rapier work when Lucifer's Blade did not?"

Mitsuru looked a bit pained, not sure herself if it was the implication of her answer or the beating she had taken, "It was a matter of will, or rather who's will. Lucifer's blade was never really my weapon. I doubt it was even fully his weapon, after I opened my eyes something felt wrong with it in my hand."

Aigis nodded at that, but clearly still confused, "But then why couldn't I use any higher-level personas?"

Mitsuru looked about to make sure they weren't going to be attacked. "Philemon, the being I met in that dream, mentioned something that makes me think that the Hanged Man has the ability drain people of their willpower. And considering a persona is the ability to control one's own shadow through will..."

Aigis stopped and considered, "Why now? It is unlikely that the Seal is in any danger from Nyx or Erebus. Could something else be trying to bring about the Fall?"

Mitsuru considered, "No, Louisa mentioned something about the world not being as it should be. The question is, is she some kind of revolutionary, or did something actually go wrong somewhere?"

Aigis looked down the halls, "We should contact the rest of SEES."

Mitsuru shook her head, "No, I've already contacted who I could. Akihiko just joined a police force and doesn't have any leave to burn, Iori is busy making a home for his new wife, Amada is still attending school, and both Yamagishi and Takeba are busy at the universities they went to. However, I agree about finding others that can help. In fact, I have some feelers out looking for other Persona users, and I got a couples bites."

Aigis looked at Mitsuru expectantly, Mitsuru continued, "Though I am hesitant to call upon him as he is the head of the family the Kirijos broke away from."

"If he is family would he not want to help you all the more?"

"Human relationships can get messy. Besides, I have this sense of dread that he will try to manipulate me into joining the Kirijo and Nanjou families again."

Aigis considered, "Then be the stronger-willed one and make him wish the Nanjous could join the Kirijos, as subordinates."

Mitsuru mused at that thought, "My will is unfailing."

To be continued.


	4. Chapter 4

Mitsuru set down the newspaper as a tech walked into her temporary office while the other building was being investigated and restored. She looked the tech in the eyes as he approached and put her smart phone on the table. He didn't seem especially nervous for a man walking into his boss's office, and Mitsuru couldn't tell if this was the rational response of someone who had done his job and was reporting back, or American irreverence.

The tech looked at Mitsuru rather coldly, "Ma'am, your phone had suffered some electrical surge damage. But considering the entity you were close to when it happened, that's not surprising. The SP-999 survived the damage remarkably well. What few programs were damaged have been restored, except one. The Demon Summoning Program is written in code that no one in my department can even figure out, and even converted to assembly language it could take years to decipher what it actually does, much less figure out the errors that is causing it to lock up. However, I did run an IP check on where it was downloaded from and sent it to the investigative service that you hired."

Mitsuru kept a stoic expression throughout the report, though she was certain Pixie would be anything but stoic once the news reached her. "Do you know anything about where the IP address came from?"

The tech shrugged, "Beyond the fact that it's an IP that belongs to the US, no."

Mitsuru nodded, "And the creature that was feeding off our power lines during the attack?"

The tech consulted his notes, "We are calling it a Tesla Beast right now. It appears to have been born of an experiment we were funding about the wireless transmission of electrical energy. While all official statements from the scientists claim that the beast was created by accident in the Kirijo Headquarters' mini-labs, I have reason to doubt that was the case."

Mitsuru let a note of anger onto her face, but allowed the tech to continue, "Data my department was able to retrieve from the demonstration, and some data we were able to acquire from the actual experiments, suggest that this was not the first time the experiment produced a Tesla Beast. In fact, it is either the actual goal of that experiment or it is something they've deemed to be useful to the experiment's end goals."

Mitsuru looked at the phone and picked it up, "Thank you for your efforts. Please send any information on these Tesla Beasts you gather to me via encrypted email."

The tech didn't move but motioned toward her newspaper, "Ma'am, one last thing. Have you read the article on page 13 of today's paper?"

Mitsuru looked at him in confusion, "No, I haven't."

The tech took a deep breath, "The paper describes the death of several people lately, and it claims they died of Apathy Syndrome. However, data I received from Kirijo's previous research head suggests that Apathy Syndrome itself can only be a contributing cause of death, not the main cause. Moreover, some of the other details are wrong for Apathy Syndrome. Considering the invasion we had earlier, I have my doubts about this being a strictly natural event. I cannot say for certain what, but I believe we may have a supernatural equivalent of a serial killer on our hands."

Mitsuru nodded, knowing full well that as long as the Seal was still in place no one should be joining the ranks of the Lost. "Thank you for bringing this to my attention."

The tech then gave a brief wave and left Mitsuru's office. Things only got more bizarre by the day. As intelligent as Mitsuru was, she doubted she would be able to learn anything by looking at the bodies of those that died of what had to have been the impossible. Still, perhaps this is what Louisa meant that the world is not as it should be.

A few hours went by, and Mitsuru completed her work for the day and returned home. Her guests arrived about an hour later. There were four of them, and two were just out of high school, but came with quite the reputation. The others were Aigis and Nanjo. Nanjo had surprised her by showing up his own customized motorcycle. She had a dinner prepared and allowed the guests to intermingle. The two youngest, Souji Seta and Naoto Shirogane, seemed to already know each other and spent much of the dinner catching up with each other. Aigis seemed to be trying to run interference between Mitsuru and Nanjo, but eventually Mitsuru finally worked the courage to speak to her distant relative.

"Thank you for showing up, Nanjo-san. I didn't know if the head of the Nanjo family would have the time to assist me in this current matter," Mitsuru bowed traditionally.

Nate waved his hand after returning the bow, "Your welcome. Though this is a matter I had been investigating myself recently. I'd been informed that you decided to not use honorifics while in the United States. I actually agree with the sentiment, it merely makes us stand out like a bunch of Japanese tourists, which would only impede our work here. Besides, I prefer to be called Nate."

Mitsuru could not hide the confusion from her face. "I thought your name was Kei Nanjo."

"It was a game some friends of mine from my high school days used to play. We used western-style names for each of us just to amuse ourselves. I used to go by Nate Trinity, and I've actually grown fond of being called Nate."

Mitsuru stifled a laugh, "Very well, Nate. You may call me Mitsuru."

Nate grinned, "I do have two questions for you before we discuss the business that has drawn the five of us here."

Mitsuru braced herself.

Nate pointed out the window toward the Ohio River, "Did you move Kirijo Electronics to Cincinnati because the first professional baseball team in the world came from here? And do you know where I can get tickets to one of their games? Though I doubt they will be able to hold a candle to any of Japan's teams."

Mitsuru felt a great deal of tension leave her in that moment, "My father was an avid baseball fan, and he might have mentioned it when I was younger, so it might have had a subconscious impact. However, I was able to negotiate the best incentives to move the Kirijo group here out of all of the areas I had considered, and that is the main reason I chose this city."

Nate seemed to accept that answer, "Very well. I have expectations of you to make yourself to be this nation's number one woman, if you are to make the Kirijos to be Japan's number one man's rival. Now, if you'll excuse me, I'll get to know the other members of our little party."

Mitsuru rubbed the bridge of her nose in bewildernment, "It seems a rather odd jump to meet someone and declaring them your rival almost instantly."

Aigis nodded, "It is possible that he chose you as his rival for no other reason than you are a persona user that is the head of an important family, like he is. It is likely a small field."

Mitsuru smiled and closed her eyes, "Yes, I hadn't considered that."

Aigis then looked over to Mitsuru, "One thing still puzzles me. Did you not say you would be attending a university and letting the board run the company until you graduated?"

Mitsuru looked over to Aigis, "There were circumstances involving certain board members that changed those plans. I also took accelerated courses, which combined with college courses I took in high school meant I graduated four months ago. So I am actually working on post-graduate courses when I have the time."

Aigis looked at Mitsuru, "When do you sleep?"

Mitsuru chuckled, "It's actually not as hard as you might think. Most of my socialization is largely restricted to business-related functions, so I have more free time to work on my education and run the business."

Aigis shook her head, "If there is a way to save Minato without triggering the Fall, like this Louisa has suggested, your time may become more precious to you."

Mitsuru became a little misty eyed for a moment, "It would certainly be a welcome change of pace."

Souji cleared his throat, "I don't mean to be rude, and I am grateful for this food provided for us, but I don't think you called us here just to chat and run down IP addresses. Maybe we should start talking about what you called us here for?"

Mitsuru drew a breath and nodded. She laid out before them everything she knew about the events thus far, the encounter with Louisa, the Hanged Man, the Tesla beasts, and, most disturbingly, the resurgence of an apparently lethal case of Apathy Syndrome. Some questions were asked about the Apathy Syndrome, and Mitsuru did her best to answer about the Dark Hour, the experimentation with shadows and Nyx. Pixie eventually woke up and made her presence known, but mostly stayed out of the conversation. Eventually, a sullen silence befell the quintet as they mulled over the information.

Naoto broke the silence, "It seems we have four mysteries on our hands. The first, possibly most pressing, is: What about this world is not supposed to be? Given all of our past experiences, it is likely the cornerstone of this entire case. The second and third are the mysteries involve uncovering the true identities, and agendas, of Louisa Ferre and the Hanged Man. The final mystery is: What significance does the Kirijo group, and more specifically Mitsuru Kirijo, have to the other three mysteries? Every other question we have is likely directly tied to these larger mysteries."

Souji bore the look of a man who just had an epiphany, "Louisa Ferre? That sounds suspiciously like a Persona I use occasionally."

Aigis seemed to key in on what Souji said and spoke the last word at the same time as him, "Lucifer."

Nate shook his head, "Even if that is true, that doesn't explain why Louisa seemingly initiated all of this. And if she is the one Christians call the Father of Lies, then that calls into question the world being not right. It could be a simple matter of Lucifer wanting to use us to remove God from the picture."

Naoto looked over to Nate, "There may be some truth to what you are saying, but that doesn't change that the world is not as it should be. If these other cases are indeed some variation of the curse afflicted upon the Lost of three years ago, then that implies that Nyx is somehow getting around the Great Seal. Which according to what we know, should not be possible."

Nate closed his eyes, "Nyx returns and nearly destroys humanity. Philemon is communicating to Persona users again. Perhaps Nyarlathotep is back from his exile."

Naoto shook her head, "We don't have evidence that he is involved in this incident. So for the sake of finding out what is going on, I recommend that we focus our energies on what leads we do have."

Souji put down his Fountain Dew, "The Hanged Man is the name of one of the Arcana, and that Shadows can exist in this world without special circumstances like the TV World and the Dark Hour. I think it's best that we consider that he may not be a demon, but a shadow."

Naoto nodded, "It is certainly possible, but we shouldn't go off making assumptions without direct evidence. There are too many ways to create false assumptions that will lead us off course if we do."

Mitsuru interjected, "The simple truth is we don't have enough information right now to make any informed decisions. So, I suggest we follow what information we have."

Naoto looked at her notes, "I've managed to obtain a physical address associated with the IP in question, it will likely lead us to Louisa. We also should have the location of the labs from the Kirijo Group's own files, and that may lead us to the Hanged Man give the odd coincidence of the Tesla Beast attacking at the same time as the Hanged Man. I think we should split up-"

Mitsuru cut Naoto off, "I'm sorry, but given the beating Aigis, Pixie and I took fighting the Hanged Man, I suggest we leave that one on the back burner until we are certain there is a way to avoid his will-draining ability. Plus, having us all in the same location may be the best defense we have should any foe appear before us. We should focus on the IP address for now."

Nate considered for a moment the situation, "Given both of my experiences with this kind of situation before, I suspect that, even if Louisa isn't hostile, any place we go to investigate is going to end up crawling with demons that may decide to attack us on sight."

Pixie added to Nate's concern, "Plus, not all demons are on the same side. Some do follow Lucifer, some follow YHVH, others follow other independent entities beyond those two. So even if Louisa is Lucifer, there is no guarantees that any demons we come across in that search will be friendly."

Mitsuru looked at a nearby clock, "It's almost midnight, and all this discussion isn't solving anything. I suggest you go back to your rooms I provided at the hotel. Take a few days to get over the jet lag and then we will begin in earnest once you all have adjusted to local time."

As the clock struck midnight, a painfully familiar feeling washed over Mitsuru. Her eyes widened as she looked out the window, the moon was red. She looked over at the others and breathed a sigh of relief that none had been transmogrified. However, all electronic equipment had stopped working, though her mechanical grandfather clock kept ticking away.

Souji got up and went over to the window, his eyes narrowed, "Well I'll take this as proof enough that something is wrong with the world."

Mitsuru looked hard at the moon, "This is a new Dark Hour."

To be continued.


	5. Chapter 5

Mitsuru could feel the tension in her shoulders as she tried to make her way out of the building. Her fencing ability apparently worked fine for fighting some demons, but trying to take down shadows requires active use of a persona. Fortunately she was not alone, and Pixie was covering a lot of the slack being left by Mitsuru. However, what really was getting on Mitsuru's nerves was the simple fact that every time they took a turn, it seemed the building rearranged itself. Initially, they had just taken the emergency stairs down a flight to find themselves in the elevator lobby on the second floor, and then on the thirtieth floor near the janitor's closet. Even Nate had given up on trying to keep track of where any given location would be next.

Souji called forth Izanagi-no-Okami, "It's over for you! Megidolan!"

Nate grumbled, "At least better than the guttural yelling he's been doing. Anybody know the current time?"

Aigis noted, "It has been 23 minutes since the beginning of the Dark Hour."

Mitsuru sighed and apologized for the fifth time for being a burden and finally Souji snapped, "The only reason you're being a 'burden,' as you put it, is because these shadows are all strong against physical attacks, if they do not outright repel them."

Pixie kept peeking around and finally Mitsuru caught the little demon try to suppress a laugh. Mitsuru cocked and eyebrow, "Is something about this situation funny, Pixie?"

Pixie tried to look innocent, "Nope, it's just good luck that you didn't run into demons with the same abilities in your other tower."

Mitsuru eyed the Pixie and the little fairy just waved her off, "No the funny thing is. This little maze is like something I did last time I was on Earth. So another fairy is likely the cause of this. Though it would have to be something greater than even a High Pixie to pull a maze that actually shifts locations, rather than just making us wonder in circles thinking we're actually moving, like what I can do."

Mitsuru gripped her rapier and wondered if she shouldn't swat Pixie with it before Naoto spoke, "If this is truly the work of another fairy then perhaps you could lead us to that other fairy before we wind up in someone's bathroom when the dark hour ends. There are many scenarios that local authorities may not believe us if we end up in the wrong spot when reality resumes it's normal course."

Pixie nodded, "Actually, I think I know what door to use to take us there. I think it would be best if our leader takes point. Depending on who it is, they would prefer to see a Pixie following a human than the other way around."

Mitsuru took the point position as she opened the door and walked through it. On the other side was a large oak tree with blue-green leaves. Tiny dots of light filled the area as the group walked through. It didn't take long for Mitsuru to notice that a lot of the creatures in the trees that looked like Pixies, High Pixies and even an Elf or two. In the center was Oberon and Titania, looking at the approaching group with smiles on their faces. Mitsuru, though only guessing on the elves, was still troubled about the fact that she was identifying demons based on Minato's and Aigis's personas.

Titania glared at her husband momentarily when he started to float toward the group, and he began to retreat behind her, "Welcome, mortals. What brings a bunch of humans to my fairy grove?"

Mitsuru did a quick bow, "My name is Mitsuru Kirijo, and I am wondering why the building that contains my home is now a maze to get out of."

Titania giggled, "My apologies deary. That trap was not meant for humans, but for those shadows that now roam the area outside. I had assumed the Pixie you contracted with would be able to lead you through it with little difficulty. Now I pose a question to you: What has weakened the veil between the demon and human worlds?"

Mitsuru shook her head, "We are looking into the situation, though we had no idea that this had happened. Though we were, rather cryptically, forewarned."

Titania simply nodded, "It does seem as though you cleared most of the shadows out on your approach here, such that I no longer need to send my own to protect this grove. Therefore, when the walls between the worlds weaken like this again, I shall protect this tower, and your home, as if it were my own. If only by confusing the shadows into finding neither of our places."

Mitsuru smiled, "That is quite generous of you."

Titania leaned back against the leaf she used as a chair, "I do have a favor to ask in return for the continued protection though. There are 5 other towers in this area, with their own groups of demons in them. Shadows are likely there too."

Souji interjected, "And why do we care about these other towers?"

Titania gave Souji a smile that thinly veiled her vexation with him, "Because, boy, those towers have powerful demons and artifacts that you can use to either fix the veil, or destroy it utterly. However, I suspect that with you the fact that there are humans in those buildings who will be consumed, either by demons or shadows, if those places are left alone will be better motivation for you."

Naoto put her hands in her pockets, "I though most humans transmogrify during the Dark Hour."

Titania looked at the young detective, "If by that you mean those souls that turned into those protective coffins, there were some. However, as the self-deception in human hearts is at an all time low, that isn't likely to be as many as you may think."

Souji's jaw went slack, "No way! The defeat of Izanami should not cause this kind of suffering, and should have been the end of the fog of deception!"

Titania softly shrugged, "Most people are more open to the truth now. However, there are still many that do not want to hear the truth, as they fear the suffering it will inflict. After all, supernatural presence in this world hardly tries to keep itself secret, yet there is an illusion amongst humans that demons, gods and all things supernatural do not exist or are impossible to prove. It is just one example of how humans would much rather believe what they will, than seek the truth.

Titania floated upwards a bit, "That shield of deception, for most, no longer exists, thanks to you. There fore the number of people with the potential to except the truth of not only the world around them, but the truth about themselves as well. In other words-"

Mitsuru completed Titania's thought, "There are a great many more with the potential to use Persona."

Titania just nodded. Titania floated over to Oberon got something from him and went back to Mitsuru and handed two cards over. "You will need these. While two of your party possess the wild card, you do not. I cannot read your fate, but I do see a number of strings of fate attached to you. These spell cards will assist you. Now go out the door, it should lead to your penthouse. This hour is almost over."

Mitsuru led the others through the door, and once the Dark Hour ended, sent everyone off. The next few days were fairly quiet. The news had reported a few fairly brutal murders, and lots of people missing world-wide, but considering the number of potential persona-users world-wide during the dark hour that was expected. What Mitsuru found uncomfortable was the fact that the Dark Hour hadn't reappeared in the 4 nights since. While she had at least one clear objective in her growing list of things to do, her ability to pursue it was limited.

She got a call from Naoto Shirogane a little later, evidently her investigation. Fortunately, her schedule was clear for the morning so she went to the building they had tracked the IP address to. There she found Naoto trying to look busy around the scene, and Souji trying to talk to a security officer. However, it became quite clear as to what that barrier was that was hindering the investigation, the language barrier. Mitsuru tried to not be frustrated that the investigators she hired needed this much help from her.

Mitsuru walked up to the security officer, "Is there a problem here?"

The security officer put his hand up to keep Mitsuru at a distance, "Ma'am, there is no issue here. Just trying to tell this young man and his girlfriend this isn't a bakery."

"A bakery?" Mitsuru asked Naoto, note even fully conscious that she has switched from English to Japanese.

Naoto looked embarrassed, "I can't speak English very well, and it seems we've hit Souji's limit in that area as well."

Mitsuru suppressed a laugh, "Alright, next time I'll have Aigis tag along as a translator but for now, I'll help." Mitsuru turned back to the security officer, "Sir, these two are private investigators I hired in Japan to look into a matter for me. I'm Mitsuru Kirijo, and they are looking into someone that contacted me recently that we believe may work here. So if you don't mind I'll escort them in and act as translator for them."

The security officer paused for a moment before tipping his hat back, "Kirijo, as in Kirijo electronics? Hey, my sister just got her first decent paying job in over two years thanks to you. Sure, you can go in."

Mitsuru let out a laugh, "Thank you, and I'll do my best to not cost you a job."

They entered the place, it was a collection of small offices. There was a dental office, two financial planning offices, and an IT consultant. Naoto directed them toward the IT office. Inside was a hunched over man trying to work on a computer's hardware. Mitsuru knocked on his desk to get his attention, upon which the man shot up looked around and adjusted his glasses.

The IT professional continued to try and straighten up, "Yes, need some IT work done?"

Mitsuru shook her head, "No, but I was wondering if you had done some work recently. Possibly for a Louisa Ferre?"

The IT guy just looked at her a moment, "Not that I can think of, but it's not really a good idea to talk about potential business with other clients anyway."

Naoto leaned over to Mitsuru and spoke in Japanese to which Mitsuru translated, "This person sent a program to a smart phone recently that has since frozen. I'm trying to find them because the program is corrupted and I need it fixed."

The man looked at Mitsuru for a moment, "Well, I do offer file hosting through my site. But I'm afraid I just can't give that information away for free."

Mitsuru smiled, "Do you accept credit cards?"

About an hour later, the IT consultant had a list of possible locations to find where Louisa had uploaded the files from. After getting the list, she took the investigation team back to Kirijo's temporary site and had Aigis escort them for the rest of the day. Mitsuru spent the rest of her day taking care of her company's business. It was at the end of the day that she opened a letter that grabbed her interest.

The letter was on parchment, and was written in what Mitsuru hoped was red ink. It said, "Woe! Woe! Woe be unto you young maiden. You have injured me with your blasphemy and have slaughtered mine servants. My wrath shall be upon you shortly. Lightning shall rob your freedom and shackle you to your doom. You shall know pain in those days, and beg for death's embrace as you would a lover's."

It was signed, The Hanged Man.

To be continued.


	6. Chapter 6

Mitsuru stared down at her laptop and pondered the next few lines in her report. The sales numbers were actually looking good for the first time in three quarters, but at the same time she didn't want to cause unreasonable expectations out of the share holders that Kirijo electronics was out of the woods. Still, it was a nice quiet day. After the Hanged Man's warning came in, she had security keep a closer eye on unusual visitors, and had her mail screened. Yet, despite all of the fuss, nothing of a supernatural bent had happened. Mitsuru knew better than to let down her guard, but jumping at proverbial shadows wouldn't help matters either.

The investigation team hadn't been turning up anything either. Souji and Naoto had reached a dead end hunting for Louisa Ferre when the IP address for where the program supposedly came from turned out to be a non-existent place out in the middle of the ocean. Nate had gone his own way, and kept fairly tight lipped about what he was doing. However, Mitsuru had caught him a few times checking out various rumors, and even caught him starting some. Of course, it didn't matter to Mitsuru, everything about these rumors were either completely untrue to begin with, or simply did not come to pass. It was rather perplexing that he was even trying that route.

Eventually, Mitsuru was informed by the butler, that Aigis had come to visit. Mitsuru set her work aside and greeted her friend. "I take it our investigator friends are taking the day off."

Aigis shrugged, "They were becoming excessively stressed from hitting dead ends investigating Louisa Ferre. They opted to take a break and be tourists for a day and to look at the problem with fresh eyes after their break."

Mitsuru smiled, "I suppose everyone needs a day off every now and again."

Aigis grabbed Mitsuru's arm and began dragging her to the door, "That includes you, Mitsuru."

Mitsuru knew better than to try and resist Aigis, besides she hadn't taken any time to herself really since meeting with Louisa. Aigis made sure Mitsuru was fully prepared for going out when she took her outside the building. The other three investigators were there waiting on the pair. Souji and Naoto were wearing casual, if still distinctly Japanese, clothing. However, Nate had decked himself out in Reds gear, though the jersey he wore still had only the number 1 on it, but the name Hutchinson meant nothing to Mitsuru. To Mitsuru, in all honesty, Nate almost looked like he was trying to cosplay. Though she dared not mention it for fear of the retaliation it might bring down.

Souji grinned, "It's actually nice to not be the one in charge for a change, so where should we go leader?

Mitsuru was beginning to see a bit of Minato in Souji. They were both mostly quiet people and seemed to get along well with nearly everyone. However, she did note that Minato was much more of a classic berserker, where Souji's personal fire stayed lit almost all the time, even if he was fairly quiet and reasonable about it. Minato, on the other hand, was rather soothing to be around and seemed more at peace, you wouldn't know he was a capable combatant until one made the mistake of threatening those he cared for.

Mitsuru pulled herself out of her own musings, "I think I would like to see museum at Union Station. Though I can understand if I'm the only one interested in local history."

Naoto adjusted her hat, "Considering it's almost lunch, I'd suggest getting some food before heading there."

Souji shrugged, "I don't really know of many places to see around here, so anything is better than nothing."

Mitsuru took them to Gold Star for the local specialty, and then took them on to see the museum. She drew a sigh of relief that her choice of entertainment wasn't leaving them completely bored. She wouldn't call them enthusiastic about the trip, but they didn't look like they were about to fall asleep. Mitsuru found herself having to stop fairly frequently to get some water. Only two of the 5 were not fluently bilingual, but for some reason it seemed that Mitsuru was doing most of the translating. Honestly, she sometimes felt like she was being the mother figure.

After getting out of the museum a couple hours later, the group was trying to decide where to go next having picked up several tourist pamphlets, Aigis was helping them translate it this time. From the sounds of things, she would be driving everyone to the zoo next. Nate came back from a vendor with two cans of soda.

Nate hands over one of the cans, "I think adding 'must speak English' to that inquiry for Persona users."

Mitsuru took the soda and drank some of it, "I'm actually looking. But nearly every Persona user that has responded has been Japanese."

Nate looked perplexed for a moment, "You'd almost think Philemon and Igor were Japanese, and with a lot of patriotism."

Mitsuru looked down for a moment, "There's something I've been meaning to ask-"

Nate cut Mitsuru off, "If it's why I declared you my rival, it has less to do with familial or supernatural reasons than you might think. Remember early January 2010?"

Mitsuru frowned, "It's hard to forget the month SEES finally got to the top of Tarturus."

Nate huffed, "No, at that time you were engaged to a fool."

Mitsuru's eyes narrowed, "What does he have to do with anything?"

Nate looked skyward, "The fact that you ended the relationship actually made a round through a lot of Japanese high society. What was more curious was that a video of that little event made a few rounds amongst the social elite."

Mitsuru visibly blanched at the thought as Nate continued, "It was a bit of a scandal at the time, but though many would publicly denounce you for not knowing your place, behind closed doors your former fiance was ridiculed to a far greater degree. Even more so when it was revealed that he was running his own company right into the ground; you probably saved the Kirijo group that day. In fact, there were even some who took note of you, as a force to be reckoned with, thanks to that.

"I understand the politics of why you moved Kirijo Electronics, but there are many who still consider it a wholly Japanese company. There are still many of the old guard that considers it scandalous that you actively lead your family now, you still have managed to make your company survive and are even beginning to regain ground despite it all. You have proven to be a rather interesting woman. I look forward to see which of us proves more influential in Japan's future."

Mitsuru smiled, "Well, thank you."

Aigis came up behind the pair, "We believe that going to the zoo would be the best place to spend the rest of the day. If that is acceptable."

Mitsuru nodded and got up and got the car, wondering if she shouldn't have let the chauffeur have the day off without having a temporary replacement ready. The zoo was overrun with children at that point, and sometimes the group couldn't help but get separated sometimes. Eventually they met up at the sea lion exhibit, and they were trading anecdotes about various different fights they had been in or funny animal antics they saw along the road. Mitsuru glanced quickly to one side and saw Louisa off in the distance.

She ran over to the spot she saw her, but Louisa was already gone. Mitsuru's eyes darted back and forth as she looked for where Louisa could have gone. Eventually Mitsuru spotted Louisa walking by a sizable gift shop and ran after her. The other noticed what was going on and ran after Mitsuru.

Aigis looked at Mitsuru, "Where are you running to?"

Mitsuru kept looking for where Louisa was going, "I saw Louisa Ferre."

The group chased Louisa through several of the exhibits and eventually ended up near the entrance. The group stopped and looked around for a bit. The closes they could find of Louisa was a tall blonde man that looked like he could have been her brother. As they approached the young man, a loud bang was heard. Everyone scattered trying to figure out where the bang had came from. Everyone, but Mitsuru. Mitsuru didn't know exactly where it had come from but she knew what caused it, and where the projectile went.

Mitsuru clasped her left breast trying to keep her own blood bled from her chest. She would not fall into shock, she wouldn't let it. It was usually shock and blood loss that kills people in gunfights. Mitsuru had to keep her wits about her and get some medical attention. There was too much for her to do yet. She locked her eyes at the nearest facility and hoped they would have a medical kit. Another shot rang out, this time hitting her leg.

"Aigis! I need a shield!" Mitsuru cried out.

"Persona!" Aigis summoned her Persona in plain sight.

The spell helped, but it didn't fully heal Mitsuru for some unknown reason. What's more, she was still getting shot at. Aigis did her best to protect her, even using Tetrakarn once. However, it wasn't long before police and EMT's were on the scene. The shooting stopped shortly thereafter, though Mitsuru wasn't sure exactly why. She looked outward as the EMTs got her onto an ambulance. Someone wanted her dead, and couldn't help but question if the Hanged Man had purely human allies.

To be continued.


	7. Chapter 7

Mitsuru finally settle back into bed after the nurse had changed her bandages. Her chest hurt, and almost everything she did or was done to her hurt. The only time she felt less pain was simply laying down. She tried to read only to find that sitting up enough to read more than a few pages caused tremendous anguish to ripple through her body, even teleconferencing to stay on top of the Kirijo Group's business caused her far more pain than she dared to admit. All she could do most of the time was sleep and watch television, the latter of which was rapidly climbing the list of things she despised. What was with Americans and their need to make almost every remotely sympathetic character on television only marginally more intelligent than a brick?

The doctors became quickly convinced that the bullets had been laced with some form of biological agent. They've been able to remove the bullets from her, but something is still causing the wounds to not heal properly. They had tried grafts, surgery and even cauterization to stop the bleeding, but the wounds would reopen within hours of being patched. Mitsuru wondered if the agent in question wasn't supernatural in nature, likely a spell or curse that had been placed on the bullets. She also wondered if it could be her own Persona doing the damage, but she left her treatment to her doctors, they understood the human body better than she did.

Fortunately Pixie had been smuggled in by the others so she had someone to listen to. Pixie also made frequent snarky comments about the television shows they could find themselves. The little demon also made herself useful by using what healing spells she had to ease Mitsuru's pain

"Well, on the bright side, I'm not being pestered by Titania to evolve into High Pixie while I'm here," Pixie quipped.

Mitsuru groaned, "I believe the word you meant was metamorphosis not evolve. Though I'm surprised the Queen of Fairies came over without the Dark Hour being in place."

Pixie grimaced, "Yeah, we forgot to tell you. Last week, there was another Dark Hour. It happened on the night of the new moon. We suspect that the new Dark Hour only shows up on new and full moons."

Mitsuru pressed her head back against the pillow. "So it only comes about twice a month then."

Pixie flitted over to some water to put on Mitsuru, "It's two times too often. I mean, I know she's my queen, but she nags like an overbearing mother."

Mitsuru suppressed a laugh, "Things could be worse-"

Pixie interrupted, "Yeah, I could be stuck in bed with a fever. The workaholic in you must be hating this. And your team is beginning to wonder if you'll ever get back on your feet."

Mitsuru took as deep a breath as she dared. Pixie was right, she hated being helpless. Mitsuru should at least be up and finding the person who shot her. The police were handling the investigation of course, but Mitsuru had overhead that they believe that this was some cult was the ones responsible for the attack.

Pixie was beginning her routine of healing spells to try and fix Mitsuru's wounds, when an explosion rocked the hospital. There was great number of screaming and eventually Souji busted through the door with Nate following behind with a wheelchair.

Souji picked up Mitsuru and began sitting her in the wheel chair, "We have to go now! Tesla beasts are attacking the hospital, and Aigis says the Hanged Man is leading the charge."

Mitsuru was too busy fighting the urge to scream in pain as she was moved to fully process what she was told, or even to remind them to steel their wills when fighting the Hanged Man. However, as she was pushed into the hall, she could see Aigis and Naoto firing at a pair of red colored Tesla Beasts. Souji swapped places with Naoto and kept fighting the Tesla beasts.

Naoto was far gentler though in no less of a rush to get Mitsuru out of the hospital, "Don't worry Ms. Kirijo. We have a route to take that will lead us away from the invading beasts."

Mitsuru could only grit her teeth and hold her sides. The pain of simply sitting up and being pushed was already pushing her to the edge of unconsciousness. She could see the turns they were taking and was offering up prayers to whatever protective deity that could hear her, that they wouldn't be taking the steps. Unfortunately none answered, or at least not in the way Mitsuru hoped. As Souji and Aigis entered the stairwell, Nate, Souji and Aigis picked up the wheelchair and started carrying Mitsuru. Every step down felt like someone was putting the bullets back in her chest.

The group eventually made it down the stairs and put Mitsuru back on solid ground. Mitsuru would have been thankful if her head wasn't drowning in pain, she could also feel the tears on her face. She was barely able to open her eyes enough to see the Hanged Man standing between them and their intended exit.

"Woe! Woe! Woe! You have sought to escape my wrath and take the loathsome blasphemer with thee? Your foolish impudence shall be rewarded with pain!"

"You'll have to beat us to touch Mitsuru! Izanagi-no-Okami!" Souji reached out to smash the Tarot card and summon his ultimate persona, but instead he got regular Izanagi came out and barely tapped the Hanged Man with a Zio spell.

"What the-?" was all Souji got off before being batted away like a fly by the Hanged Man.

Nate and Naoto stepped in to try and help fight the Hanged Man only to find they could not summon their personas at all. The hanged used a single backhand to send both flying into a wall. Aigis and Pixie both leaped forward to fight the Hanged Man and were both summarily slapped away like the rest.

"Vile Blasphemer, tell me how do you like the wounds given unto you by the bullets made especially for thee?" The Hanged Man knelt over Mitsuru's pain-crippled body, "They were forged from fragments of the Lance of Longinus. They shall never heal. Indeed it is nothing less than a miracle that you have lived this long. It would be a mercy to kill you now, but I am not given to such a mercy."

With that, the Hanged Man kicked the wheelchair out from under Mitsuru and laughed at her. Mitsuru could only scream in pain as she hit the ground. Mitsuru struggled to get to her feet, to do something. However, her own body was failing her, and no matter what she tried she could not get her body to so much as move. The pain was only increasing as Mitsuru's vision began to fade. Mitsuru cursed that it was going to end this way.

Mitsuru's vision came back to her in Philemon's pavilion. However, he was not alone there. Sitting on a banister was none other than Louisa Ferre, though given the glances between the two it was clear the two did not like each other. In fact, Mitsuru had the impression that it was only because of current events the two were not trying to kill each other.

Eventually Philemon spoke, "The time has come and your Persona begins to awaken."

Louisa nodded, "Yes, but there are things you must know before proceeding. While I, myself, am not the father of lies, my nature does make it understandable for me to be confused as such. Allow me to reintroduce myself," Louisa fell off the banister and came back up as a beautiful male angel with twelve wings, "I am Lucifer, King of Darkness. I am the Avatar of Chaos. I speak for the demons."

Philemon breathed deeply, "I am this cycle's Avatar of Balance, often called neutrality. I speak in favor of humanity."

Mitsuru narrowed her eyes, "Then I assume that there is a speaker for the angels? If so, where is that avatar?"

Philemon nodded gravely, "In truth, you represent Divine Law in this place. Though your understanding of your role and what you represent is incomplete, and must remain so for a time."

Lucifer let out a low growl, "Normally it is the convergence of the three Prime Motivations, Chaos, Balance and Law that cause the great catastrophes of your world, with a hero being chosen to choose which shall become dominant through the next cycle of humanity. It has kept the world from being constantly destroyed in unending supernatural warfare."

Philemon crossed his arms, "It is worth saying that none of the Prime Motivations will ever lead to a utopia in which everyone will be happy, and each will cause equal amounts of joy and strife. It is the hero's own beliefs and interpretations that affects the viewpoint of which is best. However, the current crisis that faces the world is the result in a division of the motive of Law. Heaven has turned on itself. Though forces of Chaos seek to take advantage of the opportunity to upset the natural order."

Lucifer stretched out his hand and then balled it menacingly, "It is not yet time for you to know of which that we speak. Yet it is time for you to reawaken your power. Show us your Persona!"

Mitsuru grimaced, she had a great many questions to ask but right now it seemed that Lucifer and possibly Philemon would not answer her. She held forth her hand, and not one but three cards emerged. The first was Atermisia, the others were Titania and Oberon. Philemon put his right hand on the chin of his mask and Lucifer howled in laughter.

Lucifer boomed, "It looks like you'll have to do the triple fusion experiment instead of your servant Igor, boy."

Philemon nodded, "It does appear that way. So this is why God chose to allow a new Dark Hour."

Lucifer snarled, "Ha! Just like the old man to use an over elaborate scheme for this."

Philemon took the cards from Mitsuru's hands. Placing them on the ground, Philemon waved his hands over them and the cards flipped over and merged into a single ball of light. Philemon picked up the ball of light and handed it back to Mitsuru, nodding gently, "Remember, it is not merely will alone that will allow you to defeat the Hanged Man, but your reason for walking this path."

Mitsuru's eyes once more opened in the real world. The Hanged Man was still brutally beating on her teammates. Mitsuru was finally able to fight through the pain and up onto her feet. Her gaze became icy as she extended her hand. Thinking of all the suffering this monster had inflicted on her, her business, her friends, her teammates and the fact that this same suffering had called forth a being that robbed her of both of the important men in her life, Mitsuru saw the same ball of blue light Philemon gave her manifest itself and then transform into a tarot card. The word Persona slipped past her lips, then the card became encased in ice and shattered.

A wellspring of power, much like the one she felt when Penthesilea became Artemisia, washed over her. She could see the blue aura around her and the sound of shattering glass as a woman clad in Roman armor and with two large, dove-like wings appear before her. The figure spoke, "Thou art I, and I am thou. From the sea of thy soul I cometh. I am Victoria, Goddess of Victory."

With that Victoria cast Salvation upon the group, and before fading produced a new sword, the Victory Saber, for Mitsuru's use. Mitsuru grabbed the sword and lunged at the Hanged Man. The Hanged Man brought up a massive battle ax to parry the incoming assault. The result surprised them both.

The Victory Saber tore the giant ax in two, and a mass of energy was released from within. Mitsuru knew exactly what had happened. "Get up everyone, he can no longer sap our wills."

The Hanged Man roared in fury, "You think you know, blasphemer? Those weak fools in the hospital shall still fall for my glory!"

Souji this time successfully brought forth Izanagi-no-Okami and slammed the Hanged Man with a Megidolaon attack. "The difference between us and them is the degree of our determination. We won't stop until you and your evil plan is extinguished."

The Hanged Man stopped talking and chose instead to fight back. Unfortunately for him, the fight was no longer a one-sided affair with everyone's personas back in play and at full power. Aigis and Souji would keep switching up Personas, trying to find a weakness for the Hanged Man, though they sometimes had to dispense healing spells to bolster Pixie's efforts on the matter. Naoto used principally almighty spell to weaken the Hanged Man. Nate stuck primarily to using guns, either he still couldn't call Yamaoka to the field or he chose not to.

Mitsuru slashed through the Hanged Man for the thirteenth time and then spun her new saber around to parry the incoming blow from the Hanged Man tried countering with. Naoto put a bullet through his eye socket, and Souji had hi Odin persona use Ziodyne on the monster. The Hanged Man was clearly going berserk from all the attacks.

The monster let loose a roar and smacked Aigis out of the way, as she took a blow that was meant for Mitsuru. Mitsuru prepared her next course of action when she could hear a guy's voice in her head. The voice was unfamiliar but it felt similar to what Fuuka used to do when she was scaling Tarturus with SEES. The voice spoke softly, "I don't know how I know, but this creature is shifting it's weaknesses. If you hit it with an ice attack now it will be greatly harmed."

Mitsuru smiled and summoned Victoria once more, "I shall show no mercy! Nifelheim!"

The ice spell failed to completely destroy the monster, but it had left him open and badly hurt. Mitsuru could not help herself, "The enemy is down! Let's finish this!"

Aigis, Souji and Naoto all nodded in knowing agreement. Nate and Pixie were initially confused but quickly caught on as the others rushed the enemy when Mitsuru looked back to the Hanged Man and declared, "You will fall by my hand!"

The resulting ball of violence was immensely satisfying. The Hanged Man was left broken, battered and unable to move. That did not stop him from a final taunt, "Woe! Woe! Woe! You have all incurred the wrath of those greater than you. Though the present manifestation of this glorious persona lays broken, I shall return as long as my source yet lives."

The Hanged Man then disappeared as though it were just another shadow, into inky nothingness. Mitsuru let out a sigh of relief, she put her hand on where the bullet holes were and felt only scars However, she also heard the failing efforts of two men trying to stifle their laughter. As she looked back to see what was so funny, Pixie floated over.

Pixie smirked, "You might want to do something about your naked derriere, your royal hiney."

Mitsuru became flush with embarrassment and anger, "I will execute you all!"

Mitsuru once more summoned Victoria to freeze the snickering teammates alive.

To be continued.


	8. Chapter 8

Mitsuru finished her fourth cup of coffee as she rubbed her eyes to keep sleep at bay. Things had been extremely busy lately and a couple of projects had come to a head. The attack on the hospital gave local authorities enough to seek out and disrupt whatever human element gave rise to that ghastly persona, the Hanged Man. The police were surprisingly cooperative with the Kirijo Group on matters of clearly supernatural nature. The unforeseen new supernatural consulting brought in enough money to move Kirijo Electronics into its new state-of-the-art building, and she even had a new surprise for her new team.

The new funds also allowed Mitsuru to expedite a couple of projects that she had been slow on getting work done on due to lack of sufficient funding. At least not without cutting too deeply into the money needed to recover and expand the Kirijo Group's businesses. Mitsuru placed the silver suitcases that contained the new gear for her team on the dining room table. She unzipped the bag over her new battle outfit. It was a black leather catsuit that had been reinforced in vital areas with a new kind of fiber-mesh armor Kirijo Arms, which had yet to actually land a government contract yet, had invented. She put the new outfit on to ensure it fit properly. It fit to her figure like a second skin and hampered none of her mobility.

The belt that had her Evoker and Victory Saber hung securely off her hips, though she was starting to feel a bit cold wearing the outfit. She pulled a white fur coat out of her closet and wrapped herself in it, feeling much better. She took the Victory Saber appeared to be a rapier with a red blade. It didn't look too out of the ordinary, but Mitsuru could feel power coming from it.

Hearing Pixie stifling a laugh cause Mitsuru to turn around, "Is there something amusing?"

Pixie held her side laughing, "Had to hire yourself out to BDSM club to pay for some of the damages caused by the Hanged Man?"

Mitsuru's face grew stern, "It is my new battle armor it will help protect against attacks that Victoria's protection doesn't outright stop. It's design is not intended to entice perverts who enjoy being beat. If it were, it would resemble the Battle Panties Minato had found."

Pixie was dumbfounded, "Battle Panties?"

Mitsuru sheathed the Victory Saber, "A extremely skimpy armor that looked like a fetishistic swimsuit. Takeba said Minato looked positively mortified when he pulled them out of a rare chest. For some reason he had two of them, and Takeba wore one. She acted upset that he had made her wear it, but I suspect she wanted to try it on. I did put the other one on, but I never left my room with it on."

Pixie resumes laughing, "So, she was a bigger pervert than he was."

Mitsuru shrugged, "The others will be here soon so try to not ruin the surprise of what's in the cases."

The others eventually made their way to Mitsuru's place and sat at the table where the cases with their names on them were set. They opened the cases and looked at what's inside. Aigis was the only one not to be in a state of disbelief. Inside the cases were Evokers, all shaped as handguns. Naoto looked especially concerned.

Mitsuru assumed a commanding air, "Those are your Evoker IIs. They will assist you in summoning your Personas, and make the strain of doing so significantly less than would summoning them as you have been. I understand your concern about the appearance of the device, but I assure you it is only capable of aiding in summoning your personas. I kept the shape as an old friend suggested that it should be."

Naoto spoke in a shaky voice, "Ignoring the psychological and philosophical implications of shooting ourselves to call forth our inner selves, there is a more practical concern Miss Kirijo. I already use a pistol as my weapon of choice. It would be problematic for me if I somehow got them confused."

Pixie snickered, "You're really going to get confused over something designed to feel like a toy gun?"

Naoto looked at pixie then picked up the Evoker and nodded hesitantly after handling it for a few seconds. The others remained hesitant but picked up their Evokers and holstered them. Aigis adjusted the ribbon on her neck to attach the addition to her own Evoker to the Papilion Heart.

Mitsuru adjusted the coat on her back, this time noting the odd looks she was getting from everyone, "What is the problem?"

Souji spoke calmly and evenly, "There are two 'problems'. One, the new outfit looks rather unusual for you, and I cannot help but wonder what manner of attention you might be looking for. The second is our concern about the wounds left by the Lance of Longinus."

Mitsuru's eyes narrow briefly, "The first problem is an issue that you will have to argue with the designer of this armor. I assure you my desire for that sort of attention will only be pursued and sated if and when we can safely recover Minato from the Great Seal and return him to life. As for the second issue, the wounds will never properly heal, and will leave small holes where the bullets hit, but they are no longer dangerous or potentially lethal. No, I don't have an explanation for it. It is something I will simply have to chalk up to divine intervention."

Pixie drew a wry face, "Depending on the god, that would actually make sense."

Mitsuru sighed, "Anyway, it's only a short time before midnight, and it would be in our best interests to be out of this building and heading to the first tower Titania told us of. We only have an hour and climbing a tower in such little time will be difficult enough if we are trapped within this building as well and have to travel there."

The group nodded in agreement and proceeded to exit the building. The first tower, called Hell was disturbingly also the place that Mitsuru had headquartered Kirijo Electronics. Pixie teased about this being a revisit to her and Mitsuru's first dungeon, and then started teasing Aigis about being a dutch wife. The two began to bicker a bit as they entered the tower. The tower oddly reminded Mitsuru of the Yabbashah Block of Tarturus.

The tower was not the labyrinthine nightmare the group had come to expect. Instead the place was a mostly straight-forward climb of stairs. Though given the sheer number of stairs the only one not complaining of fatigue by the time they were near the top of the tower. There were some fights, but by and large the group proceeded unmolested by the demons that lived there. Pixie even charmed a Mithras into giving her it's card. A succubus and Lilith both gave their cards to Nate and Souji, respectively, but Souji didn't take the flirting nearly as well as Nate did.

At the top of Hell Tower sat a giant fly sat upon a throne, a large number of demons were partying around him before the giant fly caused the cessation of festivities by stamping the ground with its staff and getting off it throne. Mitsuru recognized the fly as Beelzebub, from the Personas of him that she had seen used. The fly flew menacingly over to the group.

"My master said that you would not come here, clearly he was wrong. Or is it that you came here seeking his aid?"

Mitsuru opted to not reveal her real reasons for climbing the tower, "This tower stands in the place of a building I own when the Dark Hour is not upon this world. I have the right to see what is here."

Beelzebub laughed maniacally, "You believe yourself to be in possession of my domain? You are either very arrogant or very foolish girl. Begone, before my senses return."

Mitsuru merely stood her ground, "I have every right to be here, and I shall not go until I am satisfied that I have no further business here."

Beelzebub roared, "You dare! I know you the partner to a Messiah! I told Lucifer that you are a creature of Law, and that you represent a threat to us! I know that YHVH healed your wound from the Lance! You are on enemy terriory, yet you claim dominion, just as all agents of Law do! Your life ends now lawbringer!"

Beelzebub swung down with his staff and tried to hit Souji in the face. However, Futsunushi blocked the attack for Souji. Aigis called up Surtr and hit him with Ragnarok, causing some damage, but when Naoto shot him with her gun, some of the damage healed back. Mitsuru made not of that and kept the Victory saber out only to parry.

Beelzebub was then hit with Nifelheim and Deadly Fist from Victoria and Yamaoka, the latter actually healing the demon. Beelzebub roared, "You think just because you outnumber me, you hold the advantage? SPAWN!"

As Beelzebub cried out six demonic flies demonic flies flew down onto the tower. Before anymore raised his staff and cast Megidolan. The group was hit hard, but none of them went down, Aigis and Souji began reinforcing the group's defenses while Naoto countered with one of her Megidolan's though it didn't hit quite as hard as Mitsuru would have liked, though it did kill two of the flies. Mitsuru healed everyone with Salvation and Nate tried to use Makouha on the demon, only for the spell to fizzle into non-existance upon touching the demon. The flies then swarmed Mitsuru and her allies, only to do minimal physical damage to everyone but Souji.

Beelzebub called upon his spawn again, another six flies coming to their Master's aid, and swung his staff at Nate catching him square in the gut and sending him flying, nearly going off the building from the hit. It was at this point that Pixie left Mitsuru's coat hood and flew over to help Nate. Unfortunately, Beelzebub saw the little fairy and grabbed her as soon as she was away from Mitsuru.

"What's this a little fairy that left Titania's grove? Your kind are rather tasty, and I haven't dined on your kind in some time." Beelzebub gloated as he brought Pixie towards his slathering mouth. Nate had gotten back up and charged at the Lord of the Flies and used his Persona to enhance his own inertia as he grabbed on to the fly and used his own momentum to push Beelzebub over the edge of the tower. The group let out a combined, "No!" as the trio went over the edge.

Any hope that what Nate did would offer any salvation for Pixie or defeated the demon lord, were short lived. Beelzebub flew back up to the top of the tower and tossed what looked like one of Pixie's wings at the group's feet. "That man was a fool if he thought a fall would kill one who could fly. Now meet your doom, DEATH FLIES!"

A swarm of red flies engulfed the party and brought them to their knees. Mitsuru was unsure of Seta was dead or merely unconscious, Shirogane was badly hurt and on the verge of unconsciousness, and Mitsuru herself could barely keep her eyes open. Aigis was still up and moving, but every attempt she made to heal the group was interrupted by Beelzebub. Mitsuru was beginning to wonder if this might be the end, but a figure clad in a blue dress walked by and cast 7 consecutive Megidolans onto the beast in a row. She heard a giggle, before that figure healed everyone and cast samrecarm.

The figure looked over to Mitsuru, "Well, I guess we finally get to meet. I'm Elizabeth, and together we're going to resurrect Minato Arisato."

To be continued.


	9. Chapter 9

Mitsuru was uneasy, most of her party had been brought to death's door, Nate's fate was unknown and Pixie was most assuredly dead. To make matters worse, this woman identifying herself as Elizabeth came out of no where to save the group. More to the point there were only a few minutes left in the Dark Hour. It was Souji that first spoke, "Are you an employee of the Velvet Room?"

Elizabeth looked back to Souji, "I used to be, however, a certain guest awakened something inside me and I could no longer remain in the Velvet Room. More to the point the point the guest known as Minato sacrificed himself to become the Great Seal, and I have been looking for a way to fish his soul from that Seal since shortly after the Abyss of Time event."

Aigis was up before the rest could fully get on her feet, "Is there a way to save him without causing the Fall?"

Mitsuru fought to her feet as Aigis helped her up. Elizabeth smiled, "Indeed, it came to me while I was producing a cash offering to a wish-granting fountain spirit. Though I am not sure what the final outcome will be, I do know that his beloved is the anchor that can bring him back."

Mitsuru thanked Aigis once she was steady and went to Elizabeth, "I thank you for the help, but we still have to save, or at least collect the body of, one of our own."

Elizabeth tilted her head, confusion sweeping her face, "Do you mean the man that Beelzebub dropped? I couldn't find his body, though he should have landed right in front of me when I entered Hell's Tower. It is likely some other demon caught him, but that doesn't mean he would still be alive, or in this tower. More importantly, we have little time to collect the Fallen, Tyrant, Fiend and Vile forma before Hell's Tower resolves."

Mitsuru was uncertain of her ears for a moment, "Resolves?"

Elizabeth put a finger to her lips, "Solve? Evolve? Darwin? Something like that..."

Mitsuru could not tell if Elizabeth was being serious or not. Naoto seemed to clue in much faster and brought up what she thought it was, "Do you mean this tower will soon dissolve?

Elizabeth nodded, "Yes, but if we take the elevator back down we can collect the forma from this floor and be back out before the tower dissolves and the Dark Hour closes."

Naoto had gotten unto her feet and was readjusting her hat, "What does these forma look like and what do we need them for?"

Elizabeth walked over to the fallen body of Beelzebub and started ripping somethings out of it. Mitsuru could see some cards as well as some metallic orb yanked from the guts of the Lord of the Flies. Elizabeth held the orb up, "This is a forma, it will allow us to focus and improve our abilities as well as open the door to the Sealed Plane. I will explain more when I know more, but for now let us hurry and gather these."

Mitsuru ensured everyone was alright before splitting up to go after the other three forma. Her sensory powers were never particularly strong, nor has she practiced using them in a long time, but she could get a strong sense that there was nothing on the level of Beelzebub left in the tower. If the remaining forma were in demon hands, they were probably alright to split up and look for the forma that way. Mitsuru hoped that she would be able to manage the communication without her equipment. However, they weren't leaving the same floor so it shouldn't be too difficult.

Mitsuru had Elizabeth and Naoto go off together and Aigis and Souji go off, she would mostly act as support and guidance though she had hoped the rest of the area would be clear and the it would just be gathering the treasure left on the floor, but they hadn't been that lucky tonight. Hopefully this room would be secure.

Mitsuru paid special attention to Elizabeth, she was an unknown that had single handedly destroyed an opponent that nearly wiped out her group. Aigis seemed to relax around her and Mitsuru swears she had seen her before but couldn't place it. She wanted the Detective Prince's opinion of the woman before trusting her. Mitsuru also kept feelers out for any indication of what might have happened to Nate. For whatever reason, it didn't feel like he was dead, but without a body it was impossible to tell one way or the other. She didn't feel any shadows but demons were harder for her to pick up on.

After several minutes of not detecting anything, Mitsuru decided to change her focus trying to specifically detect demons. She had not had much luck detecting them with her focus split, and as she focused she could sense one Shadow's presence, and it was behind her! Mitsuru then felt her senses being blocked off as she grabbed the Victory Saber and dropped into a defensive stance, on the other side was someone who looked like Louisa Ferre. However, there was no way that was Lucifer's female avatar form. Louisa has heterochromia with red and blue eyes, whoever this was had bright golden eyes.

"Identify yourself," Mitsuru commanded as she kept one hand on her evoker.

"Oh, you humans are so eager to do battle. Your blood-lust is simply spectacular. All wrapped up in that thin veil of civility to each other. Oh you're kind is so gloriously cruel." The figure kept walking around, "So you know I'm not the one who set you on this path. Most would not be so immediately perceptive. Very good, how much of that is your Persona being reflected in you or you being reflected in your Persona?"

Mitsuru shifted to keep the mysterious figure, it shifted to looking like Elizabeth, "So just how far do you trust your fellow humans? Do you really let them in to share your burdens? Or have you just decided to close your eyes to your burden when Urube nearly caused the collapse of the Kirijo group?"

Mitsuru kept the surprise from entering her face. Urube was a clerk in one of the Kirijo Group's child companies that had somehow gotten hold of the information about her grandfather's experiments, and used that information to spread fear and mistrust about the Group, he even managed to hack the system and started diverting large amounts of assets to other companies and agencies. Near the end, he seemed to have taken on some Shadow-like qualities and Aigis had to kill him. Mitsuru had spent the last two years just trying to rebuild the Kirijo Group to its former state, albeit in a less hostile environment, and all the information Urube had stolen was still missing. Who was this being, and how did he know about that?

"I'll say it again, identify yourself. I will not be swayed by whatever you are trying to do." Mitsuru prepared to strike the being in the neck if he made any indication of attacking. Unfortunately, she was not prepared for what he did next.

The being shifted from being Elizabeth to looking like Minato, "I suppose having played a role in driving back a god, and surviving an encounter with Beelzebub would make anyone confident in there abilities. Your Persona is gloriously powerful. I look forward to turning it back to a Shadow. But for now, I need you to survive, your playmates have gathered the forma and are about to be back. We will meet again in another form."

Mitsuru was still in a daze when she heard Aigis calling her name, she snapped out of it. Aigis looked concerned, "Mitsuru, what happened here?"

Mitsuru shook her head, "I'll explain later. But now we need to leave."

Elizabeth took them to this elevator that she had found. The elevator in question was hidden behind a wall on the opposite side of the stairs, the trip down was considerably less than what would have taken them to climb the stairs back down. The odd part was that the elevator led directly outside, which mean that the elevator not only did not travel in a straight line, it traverse space it could not have existed in. Mitsuru's head would hurt if her excursions to Tartarus for all those years hadn't taught her to expect such strangeness from supernatural constructs.

The tower dissolved back into Kirijo Tower a minute before the Dark Hour ended. The coffin standing next to Mitsuru changed into a police officer who was at first shocked to see someone there and then noticed her evoker, as well as the group's equipment, "Excuse me, miss, I need to see your permits for those weapons."

Mitsuru grinned, this was definitely an advantage to not being in Japan, "Why yes, of course, here." Mitsuru not only produced her own, but every permit for the group, showing permits for guns when the devices they wielded only looked like guns was so much simpler than trying to use the family name to get out of trouble. Of course, there would always be those pangs of bitter homesickness that came with such thoughts.

After the police officer was satisfied that nothing he needed to be involved with was happening, Mitsuru's group piled into her limo. Mitsuru took special care to make sure that Naoto was close at hand. A few minutes into the drive, Aigis and Souji were busy chatting away with Elizabeth, and Mitsuru leaned over an in fairly quiet voice, "So what are your impressions of our savior?"

Naoto cast her eyes over at Elizabeth before looking back to Mitsuru, her stoic expression unchanged, "Judging by the reactions of two people in this limousine, I doubt she is a threat to us. She also doesn't seem to possess the guile for subtle manipulation, most likely because its a skill she's never bothered to develop. Her devotion to your cause, though puzzling, seems genuine. On a final note, her voice does have some commonality with yours."

Mitsuru coughed to suppress her disapproving grimace, "It still bothers me, I know I have seen her before, and just how does she know Minato?"

"The Velvet Room," Elizabeth blurted out. "Aigis had brought you into the Velvet Room when her contrat expired and Metis big you all farewell."

Mitsuru was less than pleased that this newcomer had been eavesdropping, "That explains one of my concerns."

Elizabeth opened her book and pulled out two cards, one was clearly the Messiah persona, "I was the assistant to my master, Igor. During that time I managed the Persona Compendium for both Minato and Aigis. This is Minato's Compendium."

Mitsuru nodded in acknowledgment, "What is a Persona Compendium?"

Elizabeth put the cards back, "A Compendium is a book that contains all of the personas developed by either a person or a group, depending on who is qualified as guests of the Velvet Room."

Mitsuru asked the next two obvious questions, "What is the Velvet Room, and can we use Minato's personas?"

Elizabeth shook her head, "The answer to your second question is no. This is his compendium and only he can use it. As for the second question, I believe that it would be wise to see it for yourself. If we could go by the shopping district just two blocks east of here. I do have a question for you though, what do you call this little group?"

Mitsuru opted to first direct the driver to the new destination. He objected that the place was closed, but Mitsuru insisted. Mitsuru turned to Elizabeth, "I have not given it that much thought, as this scenario is playing out a bit longer than I had hoped. So I had not put together a formal name for it."

Souji spoke up first, "The Investigation Team is off the table, my friends and I have already laid claim to that one, and I don't wish to include you all without first discussing it with them."

Naoto nodded agreement before chiming in, "I believe that the supernatural consultation firm you recently started has something of a nickname that would be rather fitting."

Aigis looked mildly puzzled, "Do you mean 'shadow operatives'? That hardly fits the Kirijo Supernatural Consulting Firm."

Mitsuru smiled slightly, "It doesn't quite fit the firm at the moment, but it does fit us rather well. I can even incorporate our group as a portion of that business. Yes, that name works rather well."

The limo had pulled up to the shopping center and the newly christened Shadow Operatives poured out of the car. Elizabeth pulled everyone toward an odd blue door that Mitsuru noted to be rather out of place, and assuming anyone else could see it would look rather like she was entering a business of ill-repute. Which considering her current leather catsuit ensemble, would really ruin her reputation.

"No one can see this door but us, and time does not pass within, do not worry about it, "Elizabeth stated flatly.

On the other side of the door the room was reminiscent of her private aircraft. The furniture and wall coverings were all upholstered with a blue velvet, not dissimilar to what Elizabeth was wearing. At the end of the cabin were two people. One was an old man with balding hair, bulging eyes and one of the longest noses she had ever seen on a human being. Next to him was a woman with the same hair and eyes as Elizabeth, albeit the hair was longer and she was visibly older. Mitsuru guessed that this was probably Elizabeth's sister.

"Welcome to the Velvet Room, I am Igor," the old man began. "We have been expecting you for some time. I believe you are already familiar with my master, Philemon."

The woman beside him put her hand on the book in her lap, "I am Margaret, his assistant." The woman seemed to glare a bit at Elizabeth, but Igor waved at her as if to calm her.

Igor looked at Elizabeth, "Do not feel bad about abandoning your duties. In truth, you're duties here had expired before you had left. You are no longer a resident of the Velvet Room, though you may return at any time as our guest. Though I insist you keep that guest's Compendium with you, it will prove necessary in time."

Elizabeth smiled, a bit relieved to here that, though her sister looked puzzled. Souji nodded toward Elizabeth, he was blushing some but very clearly glad to see her, "It's been a while, can I use my Compendium, I'd like to make some changes to the Personas I have."

Margaret nodded, a bit of a blush coloring her cheeks, "If you'll follow me I'll go get your compendium, and we can make those changes you want." The two proceeded into the back, and Igor just eyed them as they walked past.

Igor looked at Mitsuru, "The unusual nature of what is currently transpiring means we do not expect you to make frequent trips here as other guests have in the past. Instead we offer to you a new service. Like the Demon Summoning Program Lucifer gave to you, we offer you are own smart phone app that will allow you to access our services from anywhere you are. It's a new service, and if you have any problems with it please come back here and we will service it at anytime. I shall also grant one to you, Naoto Shirogane."

Mitsuru looked at her phone and saw the new app appear on the screen and a thought crossed her mind, "What about the summoning program itself?"

Igor grinned even wider, "Normally a Persona-user such as yourself has no need for such a thing. However, if you wish it restored, it is not beyond my ability to do so."

Mitsuru nodded, "If you would, I'd like the ability to summon help to me should I be separated from my Shadow Operatives. Or if we simply need the reinforcements."

Igor touched the phone before settling back into his seat, "I don't allow normal social visits here, but as two of your Operatives know my assistant, and one still needs to return here to access her Compendium, I will allow it."

Mitsuru seated her self and began familiarizing herself with the new Velvet Room app as well as the restored summoning program. The summoning program revealed an auction and compendium of its own. She also discovered the Fusion programs in both. Mitsuru would spend the time that Souji and Elizabeth socialized with Margaret making new contracts and playing with the fusion programs, almost disappointed in how cheap it was to buy things from the auctions, but decided it was probably designed for people of a more typical income than hers.

Meanwhile, at the airport, a group of familiar faces would be exiting a plane. The group would be busy making their way through customs and chatting amongst themselves. Trying to, if only for a moment, not concern themselves with the confrontation with one of their oldest friends and what she thought she was doing to the world.


	10. Chapter 10

Mitsuru had finished setting up the mini-shrine to Pixie. It had been 2 weeks, and she had kept her grieving private. She would be unsurprised if after looking over the last couple weeks she had let some of it seep through, but she did her best to limit her emotions when dealing with others. She knew Yukari would probably scold her for trying to keep it all in and not let others help her, but this isn't something she could very easily talk to most people with. However, other recent events have proven quite advantageous.

The use of the Velvet Room and the restored Devil Summoning App with it peripherals had actually managed to beef up the Kirijo Group's security forces, new investigative and consulting agency. Some of the demons were even useful at helping her researchers understand more about the occult than they had in the many years under her father and grandfather. Mitsuru had taken care to ensure all the research had met strict ethical standards, and had to hire an entire branch of people to audit the research division to make sure no more attempts would be made to call forth Nyx or some other doomsday demon, of which there was no shortage. Hell, she had to put up with short term disability when she had some researchers discover that Cthulhu was not a truly unique being, and there were even more powerful beings roaming the higher planes, which drove them to temporary madness. Though apparently there were those from the Angel and Megami clans that had the time and ability to piece minds back together so it was only a short disability and no lives were irreparably wrecked in the process.

While the program was originally only meant to handle 12 demons at a time, but her own development team managed to expand those capabilities through cloud computing and there were hundreds of demons in active direct employment of Mitsuru. However, there were certain beings that she could make pacts with she opted to avoid doing so because of her mishandling of the program. However, that seemed to come to an end when a Valkyrie that was acting as a personal guard informed her that Titania and Oberon had appeared and wished to speak with Mitsuru. Mitsuru steeled herself for the event and proceeded to her own living room.

Titania was in her usual green dress but Oberon had decided to dress himself in a human tuxedo, the pair looked rather odd sitting next to each other. Mitsuru came in and offered a deep bow before Titania told Mitsuru to take a seat.

Titania sighed, "I understand you've been avoiding making pacts with the Fairy clan despite your recently recovered ability to use that program."

Mitsuru tried not to let her frustration into her voice, "I did not wish to potentially take more of your subjects when the one entrusted to me died in my care."

Oberon seemed to let out a low chuckle and Titania glared at him for a moment. Oberon recomposed himself, "Child, death and demons don't necessarily mean the same thing it would mean to you humans.  
>Yes, demons fear their own deaths and are sad when they have to part with company of ones that they have come to care for. However, demonic essences are quick to recover such events. It's why your kind can never fully extinguish us. Even if you manage wipe out those that currently exist, we'll come back into being within a hundred years. Our existence is tied to the true nature of reality. A nature you've brushed up against many a times and I doubt you fully grasp it."<p>

Mitsuru took a hard look at Oberon, but Titania chose to continue, "So, yes it is sad that Pixie died, but she'll be back most probably within your lifetime. Indeed, your demon compendium should still be linked to her essence allowing you to bring her back now if you so desired, though the bond would take a little time to fully reform. I would actually advise against it unless you have means of making her substantially more powerful. If you've been fighting the like of Beelzebub, only those who are like Oberon or me will be at all useful to you. In fact, you may wish to start fusing some of the demons at your command to make them stronger. Don't worry over much about what you are doing to your demons. You are at most inconveniencing them as they will be temporarily out of existence only for a short time."

Mitsuru looked to the fairy royals, "So, you are forgiving me for the loss of your subject?"

Titania nodded, "That is perhaps a simplification of what we just said, but yes."

Mitsuru then decided to ask, "I hope I am not overstepping my bounds, but what do you mean by the true nature of the world?"

Oberon sipped some tea that had been brought by the staff, "It is best you discover the full details for yourself. However, I will say this: The foundation of existence is mental and spiritual, not physical."

Mitsuru nodded, and Titania picked up her own cup before continuing the conversation, "Now on to more pleasant things. Have you decided what you wish to do with existence yet?"

Mitsuru almost choked on her own drink, "I'm sorry, I'm not sure I understand the question."

Titania giggled, "You have been set upon a path that you will affect how reality is for the remainder of the cycle. While the conflict at the root of all of this is a conflict within the fundamental force frequently known as law, it does have bearing on both the neutral and chaos forces. In all likelihood, you are the one that will make that choice. Much like when Souji Seta dispelled the fog of deception, and the effects of that decision is having an impact on the world, so too will decisions you make determine what will happen to reality and the influence law has on reality."

Mitsuru blinked several times, "How is my trying to free Minato have anything to do with law?"

Oberon finished swallowing a cracker, "These are delicious, do you know who makes them?"

Mitsuru had a feeling her question was going to be dodged, "I would have to ask my staff."

Oberon nodded, "When you get the chance, as for your question: The Abrahimic God is frequently seen as the highest power of law. And do you know how many different opinions of Him there are?

Mitsuru grimaced for a moment, "I believe there are several hundred."

Oberon nodded again, "Yes, but most of those opinions are subsets of roughly 3-4 major opinions, including the ones that He doesn't exist. Just as curiously, there are several distinct beings that all claim to be the true YHVH. Yet, there is only really one who can truthfully make that claim. No one can prove beyond a doubt which one it is, except for the original who has reasons of his own, I'm sure, for allowing the confusion to exist at all. Minato was a messiah and he somehow tapped into the true YHVH when he created the seal. The Universe arcana can tap into no other force but one of the supreme beings of existence."

Mitsuru had serious doubts about how well she was hiding the shock she was feeling. It only drove the point home when Titania said, "I think our more pleasant things are less than pleasant for our host. Perhaps we should discuss economics? Do you think having a debate about the philosophies of Keynes and Hayek would be acceptable?"

Mitsuru smiled, apparently weighty matters for humans was small talk for powerful supernatural beings.

Mitsuru had met up with her fellow shadow operatives, this time at a quick serve restaurant that served some local specialty. Mitsuru was still more accustomed to high class service, but it was still a bonding experience to have with her fellow teammates. Souji had apparently managed to wrangle Margaret to come and Elizabeth was evidently almost a point of embarrassment for the older Velvet Room sibling. There were both less informed about what eating at a place like this was than Mitsuru was, and the schadenfreude of the moment was making this a very comfortable and enjoyable experience for her.

Aigis looked as Elizabeth tried tying the spaghetti together in a weave to eat with her hands, "No, Elizabeth-san it is not meant to be eaten like that. You are supposed to use your fork."

Elizabeth picked up a fork, "I thought this was for your hair."

Souji snickered, "Yeah, I got a weird look when I asked for chopsticks the first 4 times. You'll get used to it."

Margaret smiled clearly appreciating Souji's efforts to make her sister feel more at ease about interacting with the human world.

Naoto shook her head, "Perhaps it would have been best to have given them etiquette lessons in private. We are attracting a lot of attention."

Mitsuru just smiled, "No, it's fine. The attention will eventually stop and nobody is calling the police, harassing us or asking us to leave. So we are just a curiosity."

Elizabeth looks around, "How disheartening. I heard that getting thrown out of a restaurant was a right of passage."

Mitsuru shook her head, "No, you're thinking of a bar, and that's only for immature college students in local frat and sorority houses. One of my VPs was talking about that after a meeting last night."

"Mitsuru, we need to talk," came a voice from behind her. Mitsuru looked up to see the rest of SEES standing there and Akihito was in front and was the one speaking to her.

Mitsuru got up and was pleasantly surprised, "Akihito, you never told me that you would be coming. If you had I would have made sure you got picked up at the airport at the very least."

Akihito shook his head, the look in his eyes was not friendly and looked rather enraged, "You're going to cause the Fall if you continue on this path."

Mitsuru focused on them and hear Aigis and Elizabeth both get up. It was Elizabeth that spoke first, "Miss Kirijo, I suggest stepping away from your friends. They aren't themselves."

Mitsuru could see it too, there was a yellow hue to their eyes, but it didn't completely dominate their eyes. She tried to talk them down, "Akihito, I don't know what's going on here, but there is something wrong with you. If you'll come with me I can try to help you, and then we can talk about your concerns about triggering the Fall."

Akihito threw a punch, Mitsuru was shoved out of the way and Souji took the punch to the face and went sailing back several feet, despite the evidence of having a persona resistant to physical attacks being active. Akihito spoke, "No, we're going to just take you down and not worry about it. The Fall must not come to pass."

Mitsuru reached for her phone, hopefully whatever was affecting them didn't have complete control. She could see Naoto and Margaret tense up when she grabbed it, clearly they were expecting a demon summoning to come next.

"Akihito, I don't know what's gotten into but as a police officer, you should understand that this nation has emergency phone numbers. My phone already has it entered in and all I have to do is press call and the police will be here in minutes. In an all-out fight you would win, but your lives and reputations would likely be ruined. I don't want to do this but I will not fight you. Stand down now."

Akihito stopped mid wind-up for a next punch and let down his dukes and let out a disappointed click, "Alright, have it your way, we can still have our shot when the police can no longer interfere. You know when I'm talking about. Watch yourself; I don't want this to be too easy of a fight."

With that and not saying another word, the SEES group simply turned around and walked out, the rest seemed to be preparing weapons or Evokers that they had been hiding. Mitsuru breathes a sigh of relief as she sees them go.

Naoto was the first to break the awkward silence, "How did you know that would work?"

Mitsuru shook her head, "I didn't, but I didn't want to fight them or see them get hurt."

Souji picked himself up, a bit of swelling develop where he took the hit, "I don't think this is over."

Aigis picked up whatever was knocked over when Souji went flying, "It isn't, but why are they so eager to fight us?"

Mitsuru pulled out her card to pay the damages to the place, "Because someone doesn't want us finishing our task and thinks using my friends against me is going to do something other than enrage me. Rest assured, we're freeing them and then I am _executing_ whoever is responsible."

-  
>NOTES: The Cthulhu reference is to Shin Megami Tensei II where Cthulhu is a random encounter with a level somewhere in the high-60's. So all Lovecraft fans I'm not knocking on your favorite eldritch abomination, I'm referencing an early game. So kick and scream all you want, but I have warned you and I will ignore all rants to the contrary.<p>

The metaphysics and spiritual talk done for this story are meant to only apply to this story and is, in part, my own interpretation of some things from the SMT games.

Also, I apologize for the random and lengthy gaps between publishing, but I do have a life and other hobbies (not the least of which is trying to get some original fiction published) to pursue so my fanfic writing is a relatively low priority. This project is not abandoned, just there is a stack of other things I try to devote time to and frequently this gets put off in favor of those.


	11. Chapter 11

Mitsuru looked at the calendar with vexation, tonight would be one of the Dark Hour nights needed to scale one of the towers and bring this drama that has become her life to an end. However, the possessed SEES members would likely show up and engage in a fight and consume much of the time needed to climb the tower. She had thought of simply sending Elizabeth on ahead with the support of some demons to clear one of the towers, but both Igor and Titania strongly advised against the idea. Evidently Mitsuru's presence would be needed. Just as importantly, freeing SEES of the presence possessing them was more pressing than initially thought. Whatever presence had sway with them could very easily return their personas into shadows.

Aigis entered the room at that moment and looked Mitsuru in the eye, "Have you found a solution to releasing our friends from their possession?"

Mitsuru shook her head, "No, I'm afraid I haven't."

Aigis shifted her weight, "I believe I know of one. It came to me talking to one of the demons in your employ."

Mitsuru got out from behind the desk to give Aigis her full attention, "What is this solution?"

Aigis shifted her weight, "We isolate them and beat them unconscious."

Mitsuru frowned, "That is the solution I was hoping to avoid."

Aigis shook her head, "It is merely the first step, I'm afraid. We need them restrained so they aren't causing much trouble. After we have them restrained we determine if the possessing entity is inside of them or remotely controlling them. Then it becomes a matter of performing the right exorcism or cutting off the source."

Mitsuru grimaced, "Then the mission needs to be capturing just one of them. As much as I would prefer to do this all at once, limiting our initial scope is going to give us the best chance of overall success. Once we know for certain what to do, then we can proceed with the others. If it really is cutting off the signal, pursuing the source is going to be easier and pose less of a risk to Akihiko and the others than trying to take them all by force."

Aigis tilted her head, "Then Akihiko is not our first target?"

Mitsuru leaned against her desk, "No, Yamagishi should be our main target. Not only does she have the least combat potential and would be easiest to capture, she is also the source of their sensory abilities. I know it sounds cold, but for now we have to treat them as an enemy."

Aigis balked at that thought, "I will continue to think of them as my friends regardless of the situation we find ourselves in."

Mitsuru forced a smile, "Of course they are, but right now they are being forced to be the puppets or our enemy. One that will not like the payment I will extract from him on this matter."

Mitsuru found Elizabeth on her way out from the Kirijo building. Elizabeth looked upset and not in her usual, almost playful mood. Mitsuru approached Elizabeth with caution, "Is something bothering you?"

Elizabeth sneered, "The being controlling your friends has no respect for the value of bonds."

Mitsuru breathed a sigh of relief that the rage of a being that smashed Beelzebub into bits was not directed at her, and then nodded, "I'd say that's just one of their many crimes."

Elizabeth opened the door and walked with Mitsuru, "You do not possess the wild card, so it is hard for you to see just how valuable and powerful bonds with other people are. Minato, Souji and Aigis all possess the gift of the wild card, and can channel them directly. While you are in a unique position and in possession of a third stage persona, those with a wild card will always be stronger than you. When those with the wild card truly tap into the power of their bonds, only higher gods of tremendous power can even compare to them."

Mitsuru didn't even flinch, "Yes, they are quite special. I can see why they got the wild card."

Elizabeth seemed a little less on edge, "I suppose had this path not opened for you, I would be on a path of seeking the wild card to perform this very mission."

Mitsuru looked at Elizabeth quizzically, "What exactly was your relationship with Minato?"

Elizabeth giggled, "We were friends. Well, I wanted to take it farther, but I was the only woman that he actually had the option of turning down. There were powers at play that chose not to mess with me, but were interested in seeing Minato not die without experiencing all he could."

Mitsuru felt a sudden urge to find those powers and execute them, "So you really believe we can save him without triggering the fall?"

Elizabeth put a finger to her lips, "We would need to either change reality at some fundamental level, or change the human heart."

Mitsuru grimaced, "It seems a number of these higher gods seem to be expecting me to change reality in the not-too-distant future."

Elizabeth, "Yes, that would seem to be the chase. Chase? Mace? Race? Lace? Well, something like that."

Mitsuru kept herself from correcting Elizabeth, "So do you have any ideas?"

Elizabeth pointed to some restaurant Mitsuru could barely make out, "We should eat there."

Mitsuru shook her head, "Not really what I meant, but getting something to eat would probably be best."

"You seemed to be most relaxed when you are eating traditional Japanese food, but the offerings available here isn't quite as good."

"No, no it's not."

The group had met in one of the parks just before the beginning of the dark hour, they had prepared themselves and began heading toward the Femme Tower. When SEES stood before them and looking mad. Akihiko was bearly dressed and wearing a bearskin, Iori was wearing a baseball uniform, and Yukari was dressed like one of those characters from a child's superhero show, though Mitsuru couldn't place it.

Souji pointed at Akihito, "That had better not be a friend of mine."

Naoto seemed to groan a bit at Souji's apparent joke, and Akihito responded, "Like a dweeb with a glass jaw could make friends with bears."

Souji moved his katana into a ready position just as the dark hour came to be, "Well, let's see how you do when I'm expecting a fight."

Aigis took a place right next to Souji, "Please, just stand down. We do not wish to hurt you."

Yukari took aim at Aigis, "Then let us have the bitch, Mitsuru. We all lost too much to let the Fall happen because the ice queen believes she can rescue her old boy toy."

Mitsuru glare froze in place, whoever this possessor was he was not as good at manipulation as the thing on top of Beelzebub's tower. Yukari, even at her most hurt and angry, would not be so crass. Even Akihito showed more respect to his enemies than he was currently displaying. In fact, Mitsuru almost suspected a prepubescent was writing the trash talk coming forth.

Mitsuru spoke to her shadow operatives, "Whoever has control of them has nearly complete control despite the earlier incident, or perhaps because of it. Try not to cause permanent harm and remember our goal."

With that Naoto nodded and ran toward the tower with Elizabeth. Iori and Koromaru went to go after them but found Jikouten and Koumokuten standing in their way. Mitsuru stepped forward drawing the Victory Saber, "Do no chase after those two and the four guardians I have in place will not attack you. You'll be facing us this day."

Akihito howled and rushed at Mitsuru, "Time to see which of us truly strongest!"

Unfortunately for Akihiko, Souji stepped in and swatted Akihiko aside using the Thor persona, "Sorry, we have a rematch scheduled first."

Akihiko took the blow from Thor but stayed on his feet and launched a Ziodyne attack from Caesar at Souji, which Souji promptly ignored. The two moved in for physical attacks. Meanwhile Aigis and Yukari were exchanging long range attacks. Most curiously, Yukari's outfit was proving resistant to bullets, Mitsuru began to limit the number of potential suspects for this clear after-market, or was that after-stage, modification.

Mitsuru suddenly found Iori and Koromaru charging her, Iori was yelling like a maniac and Koromaru merely growling. Mitsuru was thankful her Persona's evolution no longer possessed a fire weakness, but she was just as thankful she knew how to switch personas. Mitsuru began switching to a fire absorbing persona when Koromaru launched a Garudyne attack from Cerberus. The attack completely caught Mitsuru off-guard and more dangerously the persona she currently had equipped was weak to wind.

Mitsuru cursed her luck as she brought her blade up to parry Iori's Katana when she felt enough force from the attack to sink her four centimeters into the ground just trying to stop the attack. Iori smiled, "You like that? We've had our Persona's enhanced just to make sure we could take you out. It may mean some years off our lives, but it's worth stopping the Fall."

Mitsuru could only feel pure rage in that moment. Not only had the fiend used her friends as puppets in his twisted game, but he also was stealing from their very lives. Then a revelation hit Mitsuru and she was very worried for Naoto and Elizabeth. Mitsuru tried to get up and fight back but she was not adept enough with the personas she carried, save Victoria and Victoria's ice was having no effect on the two she was fighting.

Mitsuru took a moment to check on Aigis and Souji, the pair was fighting at a near standstill with their own opponents, who were themselves using skills and powers their personas had never displayed abilities with. However, it seemed the two wild cards on her team were far more adept at adapting to the enemy than Mitsuru was proving to be.

Just then a new figure arose; the form was definitely feminine and seemed to be composed of ice. She wore what seemed to be a ball gown made of snow and wore a headdress in the shape of a snow-flake. It announced itself in a big booming voice, "I am the Frost Maiden, and I was designed to be the bride of the Hanged Man. I will avenge my betrothed as my minions grind you to dust. Fear my frozen glory!"

Mitsuru grimaced, apparently that part of that chapter of this saga was not yet fully closed. However, it was Aigis that provided all the answer needed. Aigis was surrounded by a swell of blue energy, there was hatred and fury in her eyes that made it very easy to forget that Aigis was not truly human. Aigis spoke in a calm clear voice that reflected none of her emotions, "You call my friends your minions. Your creator is probably responsible for a procedure that will eventually kill my friends. You try to stop a journey that is meant to save another friend, all for the sake of vain glory. I will not allow you to continue on this path."

With that the major arcana appeared around Aigis as tarot cards and what seemed to be the Orpheus Telos persona appeared and launched an almighty attack, the likes of which Mitsuru had never seen, upon the Frost Maiden that almost utterly destroyed the being and sent all of SEES to their knees.

Ahihiko manages to get up and grab the remains of the Frost Maiden and began running away, calling on everyone else to withdraw. Mitsuru opted not to give chase and instead had several of her demons that were skilled at tracking and hunting trail and follow them to see where they went. She then got a call from Naoto. Naoto sounded rattled, "We managed to secure the target. Elizabeth will drop her off, I'm checking into a hospital."

Mitsuru hung her head, "What's wrong?"

Naoto let out a deep breath, "I've lost a few fingers. We should be able to reattach them, but I need to be at a hospital soon."

Mitsuru twisted her face, "I'll have someone pick you up, and make sure the hospital sends me the bill. The Americans don't have universal healthcare."

Naoto tried to laugh despite the pain, "Don't worry about me, I'll be fine. I'll report in as soon as the doctors will let me."

Mitsuru had no intention of waiting that long, but opted to get Yamagishi to her building where they could figure out what was happening with her. Also, she figured out that Aigis summoning a persona that she's never been able to use before, and that new attack should be looked into. Though, if what Elizabeth had said previous about the wild card was true that one really wasn't a mystery.


	12. Chapter 12

Mitsuru was outside Naoto's hospital room taking a business call while Souji was talking to Naoto. Elizabeth and the best doctors Mitsuru could get at short notice were looking into Yamagishi's status. Mitsuru let out a sigh; it did feel weird to her that she was closer to the new Shadow Operatives than she was to large portions of SEES. Aigis, Akihiko, Yukari and Minato were the only ones on SEES she could claim to be truly close to, and even Aigis didn't really become a personal friend until after the Shadow Operatives were formed and Mitsuru felt obligated to show them around and occasionally act as an interpreter. 

The business on the other end was mostly chatter and largely good news on the growth of the company, and Mitsuru's presence, even literally phoning it in, was almost ceremonial. Mitsuru knew and acknowledged that this sort of thing would probably be more efficient through purely electronic media, but business was still about social capital and connections. So this was a tradition she intended to keep and almost hated missing if only to see the people that were doing their jobs for her. However, a recovering friend was something she learned she couldn't ignore either.

Mitsuru finished her call and walked into the hospital room Naoto was in. Misturu adjusted her business jacket and looked at Naoto, "How long are you going to be undergoing therapy?"

Naoto flexed the fingers on her hand, "I just need the doctors to give the okay, and I should be out today. The recovery went remarkably well, though I suspect having several demons come by and work on the fingers beyond what mortal science can do made that possible."

Mitsuru smiled, "I did some asking around, and found a few of the Megami clan willing to help. They were actually impressed with medical science was capable of doing. In fact, the reason they didn't replace your hand with something supernaturally created was because of the doctors here."

Naoto let out a small laugh, "I imagine you're seeing a business opportunity in this."

Mitsuru nodded, "I wouldn't make a very good businesswoman if I didn't. It is good that you were able to benefit from it."

Naoto kept a smile on her face, "I imagine that is not the only reason you are here."

Mitsuru shrugged, "If you are feeling up to it, I'd like to hear about what happened with Yamagishi. If not, I can try to decipher Elizabeth's description."

Naoto looked at Mitsuru seriously, "I can't tell if you are trying to guilt me into telling you about it. However, the story is simple and short, we approached Fuuka Yamagishi, and she summoned shadows to fight us. In the surprise I lost three of my fingers and between the light attacks of my persona and the almighty attacks Elizabeth seems to prefer, the shadows were quickly wiped out, which caused enough strain on Yamagishi's mind to cause her to pass out. It was actually more difficult and time consuming to simply find her."

Mitsuru suppressed the urge to twist her face, "So she was 'upgraded' at the cost of years of her life as well. I hate to give this to you while you are still here but when you get out, could you make finding the person responsible for the Hanged Man, Frost Maiden, and the abduction of SEES your top priority when you can get back to investigating?"

Naoto nodded, "I knew that would be the case before you even asked. Souji is already working it; he also contacted our old Investigation team on the matter. It seems that something happening within the TV world seems to be linked to it. Moreover, a friend of ours has found a shortcut between this corner of our world with the area our own friends live in."

Mitsuru nodded, "I'll get in contact with HR to ensure they are properly compensated for their efforts. It would be good to have more allies."

Mitsuru turned to leave and then felt a slight nagging sensation of guilt and turned back to Naoto, "I am also glad to hear your friends have not been victimized by events here."

Naoto laughed again, "You needn't worry about them. They are perhaps more accustomed to dealing with people that aren't quite themselves than your team was."

Mitsuru sighed, "I wish that we didn't have to deal with it at all. Perhaps this personal quest of mine is causing more harm than it's worth."

Souji shook his head, "No, I've gathered some information already, and the Hanged Man and all related incidents would have happened even if you had done nothing. Apparently, your father and you had, in the process of cleaning up your grandfather's mess, shut down unethical projects that resulted in some very unstable people fixating on the Kirijo Group and you in particular."

Mitsuru looked at Souji, "So me trying to be ethical in my business affairs and take responsibility for my family's legacy is what's causing this?"

Naoto smirked, "A saying I've heard while here: No good deed goes unpunished."

Mitsuru visibly frowned, "I also don't believe there were unstable scientists in my employ."

Souji scratched his nose, "It wasn't a scientist; it was an executive, who had some influence amongst the staff. Said executive knew which of Kirijo's scientist employees had… flexible ethics."

Mitsuru scratched her head, "Very well, do we have a name on this administrator?"

Souji looked dejected for a moment, "Yuri Tachibana is the only name we have."

Mitsuru raised an eyebrow, "Why do you sound like there is a problem with that."

Souji pulled out a newspaper article, "His body was found in a river 8 months ago."

Mitsuru put her hand on her chin in a contemplative moment, "We are looking for someone who is supposed to be dead."

Naoto gave half-giggle, "Consider we've been dealing with gods and demons lately, I wouldn't be surprised if this was his ghost causing all of his trouble."

Mitsuru opened her eyes, "No, this one is simpler than that. The Kirijo Group has an agricultural subdivision that was developing cultured meat technologies, specifically, how to grow the meat faster than it would take to grow actual livestock. One of the road bumps they keep running into is that the accelerated growth causes cells to die before they reach the desired level of growth and could not be preserved for very long. A nuisance, but not a project killer when developing meat that is supposed to be served as food, but if one were to use it to clone a human, then the body would be dead right around when it hit adulthood."

Souji's eyes went wide, "So we could be dealing with someone who faked his death?"

Mitsuru's face remained stern, "I'll gather the reports I saw on the subject, if you know anyone that can look over the data from autopsy and the data from the reports we may be able to confirm the death."

Souji looked back at one of his other articles, "Would rapid decomposition after death, part of the defects of that process?"

Mitsuru nodded, "I believe it was, but I would need to check the reports again. I didn't pay that much attention to the details as I barely understood half of the science that filled most of the report."

Souji smiled, "Well, I say we have a pretty good idea that is what happened. More importantly I think we know where to find the late Yuri Tachibana."

It was a short hop by private jet to New York, where the traffic made what should have been a 15 minute trip to an industrial complex into an hour long wait through traffic. Aigis had been right, they should have taken a taxi to the nearest subway station, that had to have been faster, though Mitsuru had worried about being mugged. The facility was a clean concrete building with white paint. Aigis and Mitsuru moved to the roof. They were fairly certain Mitsuru would be identified, by Naoto, Souji and Elizabeth had a chance of not being identified, especially with a change from their usual attire.

Aigis found a sky light and the two moved to watch form the top. The other three had no trouble getting through the door, and were being taken to a room that made Mitsuru's stomach sink in terror. There, on the other side of the door was a group of shadows that was being agitated and from the looks of things was being made to attack humans. Moreover, the entire area gave off the same feeling as the Dark Hour.

Mitsuru looked to Aigis, "We need to get in there NOW."

Aigis nodded her head and blasted out the skylight and then grabbed Mitsuru and jumped down. Landing they both prepared for an immediate fight but instead they found that no one reacted with hostility and two beings instead just smiled and slowly clapped. One of the beings had the same yellow eyes she saw the night she lost two of her team to Beelzebub. That same being spoke, "Took you long enough. I was beginning to wonder if you would ever make it here. Allow me to formally introduce myself. I am Nyarlathotep, and I will be relieving you of your persona before the police arrive to arrest you for breaking and entering. So, thank you for falling for my trap."


End file.
